Estate of Fugett

596 S.W.2d 66, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2505
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 3, 1980
DocketNo. KCD 30663
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 596 S.W.2d 66 (Estate of Fugett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Fugett, 596 S.W.2d 66, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2505 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Presiding Judge.

This case began in the probate court of Chariton County, with a “petition to establish title to bank account”. It was initiated by the executor of the estate of Jess Fu-gett, deceased, to establish title to a bank account in the Bosworth State Bank with a balance of $34,298.78, which stood in the names of “Jess Fugett” and “Maggie J. Fugett”. Maggie J. Fugett was the wife of Jess Fugett, and she survived him. The probate court upon hearing awarded the proceeds of the bank account to the widow, Maggie J. Fugett, finding that it was not an asset of the Jess Fugett estate. The daughters of Jess Fugett, Veda Elaine Jacobs and Helen Marie Jacobs, appealed to the circuit court, where Maggie J. Fugett intervened and filed answer. The executor did not appeal from the probate court judgment and is not a party here.

The case was first heard by the circuit court without a jury, resulting in a finding that the disputed bank account was the property of the widow Maggie J. Fugett and was not an.asset of the estate. The daughters appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals. The circuit court judgment was reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial on the ground that the daughters had been denied a requested jury trial. 564 S.W.2d 628.

The case was retried to a jury in the Circuit Court of Chariton County, which resulted in a jury verdict in favor of the widow. From the ensuing judgment, the daughters, Veda Elaine Jacobs and Helen Marie Jacobs, have once again appealed to this court.

We affirm the judgment below.

The evidence was that Jess Fugett and Maggie J. Fugett were married December 17, 1962, and remained married until Mr. Fugett’s death on August 19, 1975.

The appellants, Veda Elaine Jacobs and Helen Marie Jacobs, were Mr. Fugett’s daughters by an earlier marriage.

The contested bank account dates from January 2, 1965, when an initial deposit of $4,778.54 was made. Deposits and checks up to the time of Mr. Fugett’s death resulted in a balance at the time of his death of $34,298.78. The bank’s ledger cards carried the name of “Fugett, Jess or Maggie”. The signature card for the account, prepared at the time the account was opened, was signed with the signatures of “Jess Fugett” and “Maggie J. Fugett”. They appeared on a printed card below the following language: “Below please find duly authorized signatures which you will recognize in the payment of funds or the transaction of other business on our account". Across the end of the card was the language: “Authorized signatures for First National Bank, Bosworth, Mo.” The only other words on the card were “address” and “date”, both of which were left blank. The cashier of the bank, Mr. Newsom, had opened the account in 1965. He testified to none of the circumstances surrounding the opening of the account.

Witness Newsom did not believe Mrs. Fu-gett ever wrote any checks on the account although he testified that they would have cashed a check on the account which contained only Mrs. Fugett’s signature. There was other testimony of her having written one check on the account, to pay a car repair bill for Mr. Fugett, to which she signed Mr. Fugett’s name. There was testimony that both Mr. Fugett and Mrs. Fugett had made deposits to the account, and testimony that Mr. Fugett alone had made deposits therein. There is no testimony in the record as to the source of any of the funds in the account.

In addition to the disputed account, Mr. Fugett had a time deposit in the bank, with a balance of $30,000 at the time of his death, which was in his individual name. There was also an account in Mrs. Fugett’s sole name. The record does not disclose the amount of this account.

[69]*69Appellants and their spouses testified that Jess at the time of the funeral of a son, who had died December 28, 1964, had said, in Maggie’s presence, that “he had his money and she had hers”; that he on several occasions had said, “(h)e had his bank account and she had her bank account”. Maggie never challenged this statement. At the time of the son’s funeral, Mr. Fugett had given his daughters $100 apiece to help with their expenses in making the trip to the funeral. At that time he said, “By God, it’s my money.” This, of course, antedated the opening of the contested account. Veda Elaine Jacobs said that her father “has always said it was his money”. Mrs. Fugett once told Helen Marie that she had put certain CD interest in “his” account. There was no testimony at all that Mr. Fugett, or Mrs. Fugett, in making the statements attributed to them, were referring to any specific fund or account.

Upon the foregoing evidence, the cause was submitted to the jury upon the following three verdict-directing instructions:

Instruction No. 2 was offered by the in-tervenor and reads as follows:

“Your verdict must be for Intervenor Maggie J. Fugett if you find:
“First, that on January 2, 1965, an account at the Bosworth State Bank was established in the names of Jess Fugett, Magie J. Fugett and continued to the date of death of the decedent, Jess Fu-gett, on August 19, 1975; and
“Second, that said account created an estate by the entirety between Jess Fu-gett and Maggie J. Fugett;
^ “unless you believe Intervenor is not entitled to recover by reason of Instruction No. 4.”

The court gave two instructions offered by appellants who were designated “respondents” in the proceeding' below. Instruction No. 3 read as follows:

“Your verdict must be for the respondents if you do not find the account was that of Jess Fugett, Maggie J. Fugett.”

Instruction No. 4, also offered by appellants, read:

“Your verdict must be for the respondents if you find Jess Fugett and Maggie J. Fugett did not intend to create and maintain a tenancy by the entirety account where neither can dispose of such funds, or any part of them, without the concurrence of the other or upon checks or order signed by both of them.”

The jury returned its verdict in favor of the intervenor.

The appellants advance several criticisms of Instruction No. 2, which we will take up in order:

First, appellants say that the first finding required by the instruction “prejudicially submitted an established factual matter not contested in evidence”.

We have searched the record, including the motion for a new trial, and find that this criticism is first mentioned in appellant’s brief in this court. • The point, in order to be preserved for review, must have been made at the time the instruction was given or in the motion for a new trial. Rule 70.03. When it first appears in appellant’s brief it is too late. Erny v. Revlon, Inc., 459 S.W.2d 261, 267 (Mo.1970); Hereford Concrete Products, Inc., v. Aerobic Services, Inc., 565 S.W.2d 176, 177 (Mo.App.1978). There is, in any case, no merit to the complaint.

Next, appellant says that the finding required .by Paragraph “Second” was “a prejudicially positive, emphatic statement of only a presumption arising from ‘first’ ”.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Estate of Hopkins v. Estate of Hopkins
862 S.W.2d 470 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1993)
Burnett v. GMAC Mortgage Corp.
847 S.W.2d 82 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
Am. Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. AUTO. CLUB INTER-INS. EXCHANGE
757 S.W.2d 304 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1988)
Brock v. Firemens Fund of America Insurance Co.
637 S.W.2d 824 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
596 S.W.2d 66, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-fugett-moctapp-1980.