Dalton v. American National Bank

309 S.W.2d 571, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 797
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 13, 1958
DocketNo. 46076
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 309 S.W.2d 571 (Dalton v. American National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dalton v. American National Bank, 309 S.W.2d 571, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 797 (Mo. 1958).

Opinion

DALTON, Judge.

Action for a declaratory judgment as to the ownership of a $15,069.71 savings account on deposit in the American National Bank, a corporation, doing business in St. Joseph, Missouri. Plaintiff alleged that her brother, Carl Hagan, had for a long time prior to December 7, 1954, been the owner of the said savings account; that the said account was changed into a joint savings account with the plaintiff; that, thereafter, the account had stood in the name of plaintiff and her brother as a joint account payable to either with the right of survivor-ship; that her brother had died on July 7, 1955; and that plaintiff was the sole owner by the right of survivorship and entitled to withdraw the account from the defendant bank.

The action was instituted on November 2, 1955, against the defendant bank. The bank answered and offered to pay the account into court and moved that Bessie Opal and Mary S. Dalton, executrices of the last will of Carl Hagan, deceased, be made additional defendants. The motion was sustained and said defendants entered their appearance by William Orr Sawyers the attorney for said estate. An answer was filed on behalf of decedent’s estate disclaiming any interest in the account and further alleging that the account “was at no time an asset of the estate of Carl Ha-gan, deceased, but was the sole property of plaintiff.” -The answer further alleged the detailed facts upon which the foregoing conclusion was based and the court was [572]*572requested to declare that “these executrices are not entitled to said bank account” and have been fully excused from including it in the inventory of the estate of Carl Ha-gan, deceased. Thereafter, by agreement of all the parties concerned, Addie Catherine Hagan was permitted to intervene and she was made an additional party defendant. She filed an answer admitting that “on or about the 7th of December 1954, and for a long time prior thereto, Carl Hagan, now deceased, was a depositor in the defendant bank and specifically was the owner” of said savings account, but denied most other allegations. Intervener is not mentioned in plaintiff’s petition and her relationship to the deceased first appears from the closing paragraph of her answer wherein she says that the account was, at the time of his death, the sole property of Carl Hagan, deceased, “in which this defendant has right, title and interest as the surviving spouse of said deceased.” Since the bank made no claim to the fund, the court ordered that the fund remain on deposit with defendant bank until the further order of the court. Thereafter, on request of intervener, the court ordered the issues submitted to a jury.

At the close of all the evidence the court overruled requests for directed verdicts by the respective parties, plaintiff and inter-vener. The cause was then submitted to a jury and a verdict returned that “the savings account in issue * * * is and at all times was the sole property of Carl Hagan, deceased, and * * * was not jointly the account of Carl Hagan, deceased, and plaintiff.” Judgment was entered in conformity to the verdict. Plaintiff has appealed and contends the trial court erred in denying plaintiff’s motion for a directed verdict in her favor at the close of all the evidence.

For many years prior to June 20, 1953, Carl Plagan and his then wife, Evelyn Hagan, had on deposit in defendant bank a joint savings account with the right of survivorship. Evelyn died June 20, 1953, and Carl Hagan became the sole owner of the account. Intervener testified that she was married to Carl Hagan on December 10, 1954. He died July 7, 1955. Mary S. Dalton and Bessie Opal are both sisters of the deceased. Intervener admitted that the savings account in question was represented by a passbook or savings account deposit book issued by defendant bank.

Plaintiff had identified and offered in evidence the original signature card of Carl Hagan dated January 4, 1922, in account No. 4533. The card shows the signature of Carl Hagan and the name of the account, to wit, “Mr. and Mrs. Carl Ha-gan,” followed by the words: “Payable to either or the survivor, in case of death of either of said joint owners.” Plaintiff also offered in evidence a similar card of the same form, date, number and terms and showing the signature, Mrs. Carl Hagan. Plaintiff further offered the ledger sheets in the same account showing transactions in the account from February 5, 1932, to and including December 1, 1949. The heading of the first page of the ledger account shows No. 4533, Mr. or Mrs. Carl Hagan, and also shows the words: “Payable to either, or the survivor, in case of the death of either of said joint owners.” Thereafter, the bank apparently changed its bookkeeping system, since an additional ledger sheet in the same account has a different form. It showed the same account number and the names “Mr. or Mrs. Carl Hagan.” This sheet had been amended by striking the words “or Mrs.” and adding the words “Mary S. Dalton.” There was oral testimony by the Bank’s Vice-President and Cashier that the exhibit was a ledger sheet in the said account; that the added name was in the handwriting of the bank’s teller in its Savings Department, Leonard Jirkovsky; and that Jirkovsky could perform “all of the duties pertaining to work in the savings department” of the defendant bank, including the making of changes on the passbook or ledger sheets. He said it was a part of Mr. Jirkovsky’s duties to put the name “Mary S. Dalton” on the passbook, as written by Jirkovsky. [573]*573This ledger sheet covered the account from February 4, 1950 to December 1, 1956, and showed an increase in amount on deposit from $499.22 to $15,069.37, by a deposit, on June 13, 1955, in the sum of $14,570.15. The passbook for the account, showing entries after July 6, 1932, was also in evidence. The heading of the several pages of the passbook showed the same modifications in the same handwriting as the last ledger sheet of the account and, also, the additional word “sister”, written after the added name, “Mary S. Dalton.” The abbreviation “Dec.” was written on each sheet where the words “or Mrs.” were stricken out. The passbook also showed the words: “Payable to either or the survivor, in case of the death of either of said joint owners,” and showed the same balance on June 1, 1955, the same deposit and the same balance June 13, 1955, as the ledger sheet previously introduced.

The Vice-President of defendant bank further testified that the name and word, “Mary S. Dalton, sister,” were written in the passbook on June 13, 1955, “according to the rules of our bank.” He did not know when the words “or Mrs.” were stricken out. The stamp used to print words on the ledger sheet and on the passbook had not been in use for several years, since the bank’s new signature cards now read “Payable to the survivor in case of death of one or the other.” The passbook contained two pages of printed “Rules and Regulations.” The stamped words were not put on the passbook between December 7, 1954 and June 13, 1955, but prior thereto, when the book was issued. On the outside cover of the passbook are the words: “No payments made unless this Book is presented at the counter.” Each page of the passbook shows the same account number, No. 4533, and the name of the account, as amended.

A joint savings account card, dated June 13, 1955, was also in evidence, which the vice-president of defendant bank identified as bearing the number of this savings account, the amended name of the account and the signature, “Mary S. Dalton, sister.” The signature on the card was further identified as showing the true signature of Mary S. Dalton.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
309 S.W.2d 571, 1958 Mo. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dalton-v-american-national-bank-mo-1958.