Harvey v. Cooper

776 S.W.2d 918, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1388, 1989 WL 110449
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 26, 1989
DocketNo. WD 41343
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 776 S.W.2d 918 (Harvey v. Cooper) 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
Harvey v. Cooper, 776 S.W.2d 918, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1388, 1989 WL 110449 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Judge.

This is a dispute between the personal representatives of the respective estates of Taylor T. Harvey who died June 29, 1985 and of Lelah M. Harvey, wife of Taylor T. Harvey who survived him and died May 1, 1988, over the ownership of 39 municipal bearer bonds of the total value at the time of Taylor’s death of $173,227.75. Of the 29 bonds whose denominations are shown in the record, 28 are for $5,000 and one is for $10,000. In a probate court proceeding to determine the ownership of the bonds, the court entered summary judgment awarding the bonds to the estate of the wife, Lelah M. Harvey. The personal representative of the Taylor T. Harvey estate has appealed, and also two intervenors who are beneficiaries of Taylor T. Harvey’s will.

Taylor and Lelah had been married in 1966, when Lelah was 76 years old and Taylor 13 years younger. Lelah was in the better financial condition. She was the beneficiary of the substantial estate of her former husband, and perhaps had funds from other sources. The income tax returns of the parties show that most of the taxable income of the parties was derived from Lelah’s investments. (This would not have included the municipal bond interest nor social security payments received by the parties.)

Lelah from time to time advanced funds to Taylor throughout the time of their marriage. For most of these advances there is no explanation, whether they were loans or gifts, and if loans whether they had been repaid. The record does not trace any of the advances into the bonds which are the subject of this lawsuit. There is no suggestion in the evidence of any fraud, deception or abuse of confidential relationship on Taylor’s part.

The 39 municipal bearer bonds were found in Taylor’s and Lelah’s jointly rented safe deposit box after Taylor’s death, with no indication whose they were. The bonds had been purchased by Taylor through his individual account with E.F. Hutton over a four-year period beginning in 1980. During this period Lelah was in a nursing home. Taylor was managing the business [920]*920affairs of both of them, although he sometimes consulted with Lelah and there is no evidence she was unaware of her business or of Taylor’s management thereof. Probably only Taylor entered or removed items from the safe deposit box during this period.

In April 1985 Taylor was appointed Le-lah’s guardian. Before he filed an inventory of her estate he became ill and attorney Roger Cooper was appointed successor guardian. Taylor died, as earlier noted, on June 29, 1985.

The parties and the trial court have dealt with the 39 bonds as a single lot. It is not possible to deal with them in that way; each bond must be dealt with separately. They were purchased at different times over a four-year period, singly or in lots of no more than four. The bonds have different payment histories, as we will detail below.

As for 10 of the 39 bonds, there is no showing how they were paid for.

Two of the $5,000 bonds were paid for from Lelah’s individual bank account for a total of $7,562.61.

Seven of the $5,000 bonds were paid for from the joint bank account of the parties, and part of the purchase price of ten others, for a total from the joint bank account of $39,098.36.

Part of the purchase price for six of the bonds was paid from an E.F. Hutton Cash Management account for a total of $14,211. It is not shown whose the E.F. Hutton Cash Management account was.

Two of the bonds were wholly paid for, and another eight partly paid for “by check”, for a total of $24,089.09. There was no description of the checks, except that one $10,000 check was a certified check.

A total of $29,102.17 was paid in cash. Taylor was known as a secretive person who often dealt in cash.

A $10,000 bond was paid for by a $6,380 check on the Taylor T. Harvey Realty account, which was Taylor’s individual account.

We note at the outset that summary judgment is appropriate only where “pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the [supporting] affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Supreme Court Rule 74.04(c). It is not sufficient for a summary judgment that the trial judge may believe that the evidence preponderates in favor of the motion for summary judgment. Rule 74.04; Pettus v. Missouri Insurance Guaranty Ass’n, 731 S.W.2d 527, 529 (Mo.App.1987); Hill v. Air Shields, Inc., 721 S.W.2d 112, 115 (Mo.App.1986); Clary v. United Telephone Co., 670 S.W.2d 936, 940 (Mo.App. 1984). We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the summary judgment was granted. Scott v. Thornton, 484 S.W.2d 312, 314 (Mo.1972); White v. American Republic Insurance, 726 S.W.2d 357, 360 (Mo.App. 1987); Fisher v. Scott & Fetzer Co., 664 S.W.2d 662, 663 (Mo.App.1984); City of St. Joseph v. Kaw Valley Tunneling, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 26, 28 (Mo.App.1983). We hold that the circumstances shown by the evidence before the court do not show Lelah M. Harvey’s ownership of the bonds with that degree of conclusiveness which justifies a summary judgment in her behalf.

While perhaps a circumstance to be considered along with all the other circumstances, section 362.487, RSMo 1986, provides that “[n]o presumption of ownership of the contents of any [jointly rented safe deposit] box shall be deemed to be created by the rental contract.” Estate of Gulat, 748 S.W.2d 79, 81 (Mo.App.1988). The safe deposit box rental contract in this case contains a provision of the same import.

Respondents argue that the joint bank account funds used to pay for the bonds impresses the bonds with the same character as entireties property, so that Lelah succeeded to them upon Taylor’s death by right of survivorship. While the fact of payment from entireties funds is one of those circumstances which must be considered by the fact finder, it does not [921]*921establish as a matter of law — even with respect to the seven bonds paid for wholly from joint account funds — that the bonds as a matter of law became entireties property. In Hathman v. Waters, 586 S.W.2d 376, 382 (Mo.App.1979), a wife argued that corporation stock bought by husband and paid for by monies withdrawn from a joint bank account was joint tenancy property. Judge Wasserstrom writing for this court said:

Arzetta argues that this result must follow from the legal presumption that withdrawals by a husband from an account held jointly by the spouses presumptively becomes a resulting trust in favor of the wife.

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785 S.W.2d 668 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
776 S.W.2d 918, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1388, 1989 WL 110449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-cooper-moctapp-1989.