24 A.2d 171 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1941
Argued December 11, 1941. John B. Gorgas died March 14, 1927. The proceeds of a life insurance policy on his life were, on April 1, 1927, paid to his mother, Mary A. Gorgas, the named beneficiary. Nellie Gorgas, daughter of John, seeks to establish a parol trust of the insurance proceeds against the estate of Mary, who died August 20, 1933. The fund was awarded, with interest, to Nellie. The administrator has appealed.
When the policy was issued in 1924, John's first wife, Nellie's mother, had died and he was about to remarry. Although she did not purport to have been a witness to the arrangement, his second wife testified that "there was an oral understanding between his mother and himself" that "this policy was to be used in the care of his child whenever it would be needed for her support and education," and that "he wanted the money left for *321 the support of his child if he was to be taken before me." She also testified that, shortly after John's death, Mary said to her, "I am an old woman. I don't have long to live and I want this child, Nellie Frances Gorgas, for a real heir and educate her and I will have this money in the Bank for her when needed. The insurance money."
The same day she received them Mary deposited the insurance proceeds in the First National Bank of Ashley in a savings account marked "Mary A. Gorgas, Trustee. This fund to revert to Mary A. Gorgas when Nellie becomes of age."1 Except for a small amount of interest withdrawn in 1928, there were no withdrawals from the account and, at the time this controversy commenced, the fund had increased, by accumulations of interest, to $1,337.29. Nellie reached the age of twenty-one in October, 1938. Neither Nellie, nor anyone in her behalf, made any claim to the fund or any part of it until 1940, when appellant filed his account, although Nellie had personal knowledge of its existence as early as 1935, and John's second wife, Nellie's stepmother, was aware of its existence shortly after John's death in 1927.
The effect of what Mary did with the money was to create a tentative trust. Scanlon's Estate,
One who seeks to establish a parol trust "must furnish proof which is clear, precise and indubitable." Gritz v. Gritz,
The order of the court sustaining the exceptions to the account and awarding the fund, with interest, to Nellie F. Gorgas, is reversed and the exceptions dismissed.