Carr v. Carr

115 P. 261, 15 Cal. App. 480, 1911 Cal. App. LEXIS 330
California Court of Appeal·Decided February 24, 1911·No. Civ. No. 753.·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

HART, J.

This action was brought by plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of one Michael Carr, deceased, to recover . from the defendants certain moneys which had been, in his lifetime, deposited by said Michael in the defendant bank.

Judgment passed for plaintiff, and the present appeal is by said M. K. Carr from said judgment, supported by a bill of exceptions.

It is first contended that the omission to insert the word “as” after the name of plaintiff, in the title of the action, necessarily makes the action one prosecuted by plaintiff in his individual right and not in his representative capacity. There is no merit in this claim, since the averments of the complaint themselves clearly and distinctly disclose that plaintiff brought *483 the action as the administrator of the estate of Michael Carr, deceased, and not in his own right.

The complaint sets out the death of deceased and that he died intestate; that plaintiff was duly appointed administrator of the estate of said deceased, and that he duly qualified and is acting as such; that the money referred to in said complaint is the property of said estate; that “plaintiff, as such administrator of the estate of Michael Carr, deceased, demanded of said defendants, and each of them, . . . that they and each of them deliver to him, as such administrator, said money so on deposit) that said defendants have, and each of them has, refused, and still refuse, to deliver said money, or any part thereof, to plaintiff, as such administrator. ’ ’

These allegations are sufficient to show and, as stated, do clearly show, that the action is prosecuted by plaintiff solely in his character as administrator of the estate of the deceased, and nothing more is or ought to be required to make the pleading perfectly safe as against an assault on the ground thus urged against it. (Burling v. Thompkins, 77 Cal. 258, [19 Pac. 429], and cases therein cited.)

Upon the merits there is no dispute as to the facts. Indeed, the facts of the transaction out of which the action arises are admitted by all the parties, and, as admitted, found by the court. The single question presented for solution, as I view the record, is as to their legal effect, or, stated concretely, the question propounded is, whether the findings of fact warrant the conclusions of law and support the judgment.

From the pleadings, the evidence and stipulations of the parties are gleaned the following facts from which the findings are educed: On the twenty-fourth day of May, 1904, said Michael Carr opened a savings account with defendant bank, depositing therein on said day the sum of $730. He continued to add to said deposit from time to time and at other times drew upon the same until the eleventh day of September, 1908, on which date he had on deposit and credited to his account in said bank the sum of $996.30. “On said September 11, 1908,” so alleges the answer filed by defendant bank, “the said Michael Carr, in the presence of said M. K. Carr (his son), caused said bank to change said deposit, amounting to $996.30, to the names of Michael Carr or M. K. Carr, as ‘joint owners, payable to either or survivor, ’ and said Michael Carr *484 thereby agreed with said bank that said account could be paid by said bank to either Michael Carr or M. K. Carr in the lifetime of Michael Carr, and, after the death of Michael Carr, could be paid by said bank to M. K. Carr.” After said deposit or account was so transferred to Michael and M. K. Carr, jointly, the latter, on several different dates, drew on the same in small amounts. Michael Carr died on the eleventh day of November, 1908, and thereafter M. K. Carr continued to draw on said deposit or account from time to time until he had withdrawn therefrom the total sum of $255.

The complaint alleges that, at the time of Michael’s death, there remained in the bank, of the deposit so transferred to Michael and M. K., the sum of $976.30, for which judgment is prayed. The answer of the bank alleges that of the sum so deposited there remained'at the time of the commencement of this action but the sum of $656.41. But the difference between the amount sued for and the amount which the bank claims represented the remainder on deposit at the time of the institution of this action is to be accounted for, manifestly, in the withdrawals by M. K. Carr from the account after the death of his father. The bank paid into court the said sum of $656.41, representing the extent of the deposit at the time the action was begun, and asked that “the title to and ownership of the said money may be litigated between said plaintiff, as such administrator, and said M. K. Carr,” etc.

The foregoing is a brief but an accurate statement of the admitted facts from which the court derived its findings, of which the following represents the gravamen of the controversy :

“IV. That on May 26, 1904, said Michael Carr opened a savings account, in his own name, with said Vallejo Commercial Bank by making a deposit at that time of $730. That thereafter said Michael Carr made deposits on and drew from said account; that the amount on deposit in said account at the beginning of business on September 11, 1908, was the sum of $996.30. That on September 11, 1908, the said Michael Carr, in the presence of said M. K. Carr, caused said bank to change said deposit amounting to $996.30 to the name o.f Michael Carr or M. K. Carr, as ‘joint owners payable to either or survivor, ’ and said Michael Carr thereby agreed with said bank that said account could be paid by said bank to either *485 Michael Carr or M. K. Carr in the lifetime of Michael Carr, and, after the death of Michael Carr, could be paid by said bank to M. K. Carr. That said deposit amounting to said sum of $996.30 was the property of said Michael Carr, and continued to be the property of said Michael Carr after said bank had so changed said deposit, and at all times until the death of said Michael Carr.”

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Carr v. Carr, 115 P. 261, 15 Cal. App. 480, 1911 Cal. App. LEXIS 330 (Cal. Ct. App. 1911).

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