52 Iowa 503 | Iowa | 1879
The court grounded the opinion that the declaration of the donor is in itself insufficient to establish a gift upon Burney v. Ball, 24 Ga., 565. "What is there said upon the subject is as follows: “ Our opinion is that the declarations of the donor ■that he had given are always admissible in evidence in cases of this sort. We have heretofore held, and still hold, that they are insufficient of themselves to establish a gift. To constitute a good and valid gift there must be a delivery, actual or constructive, or, as it is termed sometimes, symbolical, or a
The court further held that there was no delivery or acceptance of the gift, and that both are necessary. The, authorities hold that the delivery may be actual or symbolical. In Granigan v. Arden, 10 Johnson, 292, a father bought a ticket in a lottery, which he declared he gave to his daughter, and wrote her name upon it. After the ticket had drawn a.prize he declared that he had given the ticket to his child, and that the prize money was hers. This was held sufficient to authorize a jury to infer all the formality requisite to a valid gift, and that the title to the money was complete and vested in the daughter. In Gardner v. Gardner, 22 Wendell, 525, a debt contracted by the wife was held to be discharged, as a gift, causa mortis, bjr the husband’s destroying the bond, the evidence of the debt, and declaring that the money was hers. See, also, Blaisdel v. Locke, 52 N. H., 238.
In Hillebrant v. Brewer, 6 Texas, 45, where the lather branded certain cattle in his son’s name, and recorded the brand, it was held sufficient to establish a symbolical delivery. The destruction of the notes, together with the repeated declarations of the deceased that she did not intend the defendant to pay the debt, constitute a sufficient delivery under the authorities cited. As the gift was for the benefit of the donee and coupled with no condition, his acceptance of it, from all the circumstances proved, in the absence of any opposing testimony, must be presumed. Blaisdel v. Locke, 52 N. H., 238 (244).
The court further held that the gift was made by the donor in apprehension of death before morning, and that, as she did not die, there was a revocation of the gift. The evidence does not at all sustain the position that the gift was intended to be
The evidence .we think establishes a completed and valid gift, causa mortis, of the amount of the notes in question.
Reversed.