Bowie Estate

73 Pa. D. & C. 264, 1950 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 370
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Mercer County
DecidedJuly 19, 1950
Docketno. 61
StatusPublished

This text of 73 Pa. D. & C. 264 (Bowie Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Mercer County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bowie Estate, 73 Pa. D. & C. 264, 1950 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 370 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1950).

Opinion

Rowley, P. J.,

This is an appeal by Bertha Ann Bowie, widow of Matthew Bowie, and by the executor of his estate from the assessment of transfer inheritance tax upon certain United States savings bonds.

[265]*265The following are the undisputed facts:

Matthew W. Bowie died August 17, 1948, survived by his wife, Bertha Ann Bowie, one of the appellants.

Decedent in partnership with John B. Snyder conducted a coal stripping operation. Snyder was business manager for the partnership and, presumably because of his proficiency, also aided both decedent and Mrs. Bowie in transacting their individual financial affairs.

The principal number of the bonds in question were purchased by Snyder, with funds supplied in part from her own funds by Bertha Ann Bowie, and, in part, supplied by Matthew W. Bowie, her husband. At the direction of Matthew W. Bowie, Snyder caused the bonds purchased with funds of the husband to be inscribed in the names of husband or wife. Similarly, by direction of Bertha Ann Bowie, Snyder caused the bonds purchased with her funds to be inscribed in the names of husband or wife.

In pursuance of the aforesaid instructions, during a period from January 12,1942, to November 14,1945, Snyder purchased some 30 United States savings bonds of series E of denominations varying from $25 to $500 and aggregating a face value of $3,725. Of these bonds, an aggregate face value of $1,725 were inscribed in the names, “Matthew W. Bowie or Mrs. Bertha Ann Bowie”, and “E” bonds of the aggregate value of $2,000 were inscribed in the names, “Mrs. Bertha A. Bowie or Matthew W. Bowie”.

Also, in pursuance of aforesaid instructions, during a period from June 24,1944, to November, 1945, Snyder purchased eight United States savings bonds series G, of the aggregate face value of $7,500, which were inscribed in the names “Matthew W. Bowie or Mrs. Bertha Ann Bowie”.

Also, in pursuance of aforesaid instructions, during a period from February 14, 1944, to May 22, 1945, [266]*266Snyder purchased five United States savings bonds of series G, aggregating $3,000, which were inscribed in the names “Mrs. Bertha A. Bowie or Matthew W. Bowie”.

Also, in pursuance of aforesaid instructions, Snyder purchased a $1,000 United States bond in April, 1943, and a $500 bond in February, 1944, both series “G”, which were inscribed. in the names “Matthew Bowie or Mrs. Bertha A. Bowie”.

Decedent had a safe deposit box in Grove City National Bank. The persons formally authorized to have access to this box were decedent and Snyder. The bonds purchased as aforesaid were placed in this box. Nothing else was contained in the box. The business partnership of decedent and Snyder maintained a different box.

Checks for interest upon some of the bonds were at times delivered to the partnership office and by Snyder, or at his direction, redelivered to decedent’s home. Snyder aided decedent’s wife in the conduct of her principal financial transactions in addition to the bond purchases. All of the bonds remained in the safe deposit box in the bank until the death of Matthew W. .Bowie, whereupon the Commonwealth assessed transfer inheritance tax at the rate of two percent upon $12,000, the par value of the United States savings bonds of series G, and upon $2,865.25, the market value of the E bonds on date of decedent’s death, these bonds being inscribed as aforesaid. Thus the Commonwealth treated all the bonds as part of decedent’s estate, whereas appellants contend that the wife acquired a tenancy by the entirety in the bonds on the dates of the respective purchases and that she succeeded to the full title upon the death of her husband without tax liability, the legislature having expressly exempted from tax the accrual of such rights to a surviving spouse.

We are convinced that Snyder acted as agent in financial matters for each spouse, and for both of them [267]*267jointly, by reason of his aptness or for the sake of their convenience. There is nothing to warrant an inference that the husband sought to limit his wife’s access to the box. She did visit the box on occasions in the company of Snyder.

The Commonwealth insists that an estate by entireties in the bonds did not exist because there had been no delivery to the wife and because it is not possible to create an estate by entireties in United States savings bonds.

We shall first discuss the matter without regard to the effect of the regulations of the United States Treasury Department under which the bonds were issued. The wife’s title to personal property held in the names of herself and husband is not dependent upon a delivery to her distinct from a delivery to her husband : Geist et al. v. Robinson, 332 Pa. 44. The essential characteristic of an estate by the entireties is that each spouse is seized of the whole or the entirety, and not of a share, moiety or divisible part. There is but one estate, and, in contemplation of law it is held by one person: Gasner v. Pierce, 286 Pa. 529. The possession of either is the possession of both. Snyder as agent for each, and for both, had implied authority to receive and deliver the bonds on behalf of either or both and to so deposit them. Furthermore, the instant bonds evidenced a declaration by each spouse that the other had a joint interest therein and that the proceeds were to be payable to either. The Commonwealth seems to emphasize that the bonds were inscribed in the names husband or wife, not husband and wife. It has been repeatedly held that the use of the disjunctive “or” in such circumstances is equivalent in all respects to the conjunctive “and”: Madden et al. v. Gosztonyi Savings & Trust Company, 331 Pa. 476; Sloan’s Estate, 254 Pa. 346; Bostrom v. National Bank of McKeesport, 330 Pa. 65. Where property is held in the name of hus[268]*268band and wife the presumption is that they hold it by entireties and not as ordinary joint tenants or tenants in common. A tenancy by entireties arises whenever an estate vests in two persons, they being, when it so vests, husband and wife. It may exist in personal as well as real property, in a chose in action (mortgage and bond) as well as in a chose in possession: Bramberry’s Estate, 156 Pa. 628. See also Geist v. Robinson, supra. However, this distinction is to be observed when an account is payable to “husband and wife” and where it is payable to “husband or wife”.

“Where a deposit is payable to ‘husband and wife’,— a deposit by entireties — the husband and wife may withdraw the funds if they sign together. But there is nothing in the law relating to entireties that would prevent the wife from giving the husband express authority to sign for her as her agent and withdraw for both of them, although no such authority may be implied.

“When, on the other hand, an account is made payable in its creation to either ‘husband or wife’, there is an immediate expression of authority, of agency to act for both. As an incident of these estates by entireties is the power that each gives the other at the time of the estate’s creation, to act for the other. This conclusion is beyond debate”: Madden et al. v. Gosztonyi S. & T. Co., supra.

An intention to create the entirety is assumed from deposit in both names and from the fact of marital relationship: Blumner v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Company, 362 Pa. 7.

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Bluebook (online)
73 Pa. D. & C. 264, 1950 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bowie-estate-paorphctmercer-1950.