259 Mass. 534 | Mass. | 1927
This is a bill in equity brought by the administratrix of the estate of Eugene T. Adams to recover possession of seven United States Liberty coupon bonds of $1,000 each. The defendant Janie B. Lavalle contends that the title to the bonds is vested in her. She will hereafter be referred to as the defendant. The case was tried before a judge of the Superior Court who found that the bonds and coupons attached were the property of the defendant and ordered the bill dismissed without costs.
The evidence, which is reported, warranted a finding of the following facts: Eugene T. Adams, in the fall of 1915, when he was about sixty years of age, became acquainted with the defendant who was then about twenty-nine years old; at that time she worked in a box factory and lived with her mother and a niece and nephew. Adams and the defendant became intimate and were frequently in the company of each other. A few months after their acquaintance began, at his request, she gave up work and he made her a weekly cash allowance and from time to time gave her valuable presents. They took frequent trips together travelling as husband and wife.
The defendant testified that a few months after their acquaintance began Adams told her at different times that he intended to obtain a divorce from his wife and to marry her, and often promised to do so; that early in 1918 he told her he would give her $3,000 in cash and $7,000 in Liberty bonds, and the next day he gave her $3,000 in bills which she deposited in her name in two banks; that at that time he owned three nonnegotiable $1,000 Liberty bonds; that on March 29, 1918, he withdrew $4,000 in cash from a bank,
When the box was engaged and the bonds were placed in it, a card was furnished by the bank and signed by the defendant and Adams, on which was the following: “Safe No. 5545 Title (Mrs.) Janie B. Lavallee and Eugene T. Adams From Mch. 29 1918 to Api. 1 1919 Rate $10 Password Northport . . . Mch. 29 1918. We hereby direct and agree that access to this safe shall be by the above named jointly. Mrs. Janie B. Lavallee Eugene T. Adams.” On the reverse side of the card was the following, excepting certain terms and provisions respecting the use of safes which are not material. “Safe No. 5545 Title (Mrs.) Janie B. Lavallee and Eugene T. Adams From Mch. 29, 1918 to ApI. 1, 1919 Rate $10 Password Northport We hereby accept the use of the above safe subject to the Terms and Provisions hereinbefore set forth, and to all reasonable rules and regulations of the said Security Safe Deposit Company now or hereafter in force, and acknowledge receipt of 2 keys thereto. Date 3/29/18 Witness M. A. Kenney Signature Mrs. Janie B. Lavallee Eugene T. Adams.”. Two
The trial judge made the following and other findings: “In March 1918 he [Adams] formed the intention of creating a fund for her benefit in the amount of $10,000. In the execution of this purpose, he gave her $3,000 outright in bills, which she deposited to her credit in certain banks in Haverhill, but intended, as I believe, that the balance of the fund, composed of the seven Liberty bonds which this suit concerns, should not, while he lived, pass wholly out of his control, and that during his fife the property in them should not be exclusively hers. Without going into the details of Mrs. Lavalle’s testimony, it might be found, if her account of the matter were taken as substantially true, that before the bonds were placed with the depositary, Adams delivered them to her by way of gift, and that when they were placed in the box they were her property. Upon all the evidence, however, I do not find that he made a gift to her of the bonds before they were deposited in the box, and I do find that immediately before they were placed there, they were his sole property, and that from the time he originally acquired title to them and until he placed them in the care of the depositary under the circumstances related below, he was the exclusive owner of them. On March 29, 1918, in the execution of a plan and purpose on the part of both to convert the sole and exclusive ownership of Adams, into a joint ownership on the part of both Adams and Mrs. Lavalle, with the inherent right of sole and exclusive ownership on the part of the survivor, Adams and Mrs. Lavalle visited the offices of the Security Safe Deposit Company in Boston and
All the evidence, both oral and documentary, is before us. We have carefully examined it, and cannot say that the findings are plainly wrong; accordingly they must stand. Harvey-Watts Co. v. Worcester Umbrella Co. 193 Mass. 138. Nichols v. Atherton, 250 Mass. 215,217. The finding, that a gift of the bonds was not made to the defendant before they were deposited in the box and up to that time Adams remained the exclusive owner of them, does not affect the further finding that, after they had been so deposited, the parties entered into an arrangement in writing with the bank to deposit the bonds in their joint names and a joint tenancy was thereby created under which the survivor became the exclusive owner. Upon all the evidence this finding was warranted. Upon the death of Adams the defendant became vested with the entire title and ownership of the bonds. Phelps v. Simons, 159 Mass. 415. Attorney General v. Clark, 222 Mass. 291. Chippendale v. North Adams Savings Bank, 222 Mass. 499. Marble v. Treasurer and Receiver General, 245 Mass. 504. Battles v. Millbury Savings Bank, 250 Mass. 180, 187. Perry v. Leveroni, 252 Mass. 390, 393. Chase v. Smith, 257 Mass. 252.
There is no difference in the governing principles of law between a gift of a deposit in a savings bank and a gift of securities deposited in a national bank or a trust company like that in the case at bar. Phelps v. Simons, supra. Simpkins v. Old Colony Trust Co. 254 Mass. 576. Joint
The case of Simpkins v. Old Colony Trust Co., supra, is not at variance with what is here decided. In that case it was held that there was no gift either inter vivas or mortis causa. The present case is distinguishable in its facts and on the issues from those appearing in Otis v. Freeman, 199 Mass. 160.
In view of all the evidence, the trial judge warrantably found that a joint tenancy was created in the bonds and coupons attached thereto, and that, by virtue of the contract of Adams and the defendant with the Security Safe Deposit Company, it was the intention of the parties that the survivor would become the exclusive owner of the property at the time of the other’s death.
Let the entry be
Decree affirmed.