Kempen v. Long

892 S.W.2d 727, 1994 Mo. App. LEXIS 1949, 1994 WL 705374
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 20, 1994
DocketNo. 65224
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 892 S.W.2d 727 (Kempen v. Long) 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
Kempen v. Long, 892 S.W.2d 727, 1994 Mo. App. LEXIS 1949, 1994 WL 705374 (Mo. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

KAROHL, Judge.

Annetta Long, Henry Cook, and George Cook appeal after the trial court’s judgment imposed a constructive trust on money held in a joint savings account in the names of Annetta Long and her deceased mother, Elda Cook. The court found Annetta breached a promise to her mother that she would divide the money in the account equally among herself; her brothers, Henry, George, and Lawrence Cook; and her sisters, Grace Cook and Marilyn Kempen, and consequently imposed a constructive trust on the funds in the joint account. On appeal, Annetta challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. We reverse.

Elda Cook died testate on October 26, 1985, survived by her six children, Annetta Long; Henry, George, Lawrence, and Grace Cook; and Marilyn Kempen. She was a widow at the time of her death. In the five years before her death, Elda had established five joint bank accounts with right of surviv-orship with her daughter Annetta. Only one Mark Twain savings account opened on April 6, 1982, and numbered 1000199^, is at issue on appeal.

In the summer of 1985, Elda went to Mark Twain Bank and purchased six $8,000 Franklin Mutual Fund certificates. She named herself and one child as joint owners of each account. In August 1985, Grace and Annetta accompanied Elda to a lawyer for the purpose of preparing a new will for Elda. Grace testified that during the trip to the lawyer’s office Elda told Grace and Annetta that she wanted everything divided equally among her children and Annetta assured her it would be done. Grace further testified that Elda named Annetta as executrix in place of Leonard Cook because she was concerned that Leonard would not divide everything equally. She did not say Elda defined her meaning of “everything.” Other relatives testified Elda stated she did not want any fighting and she wanted everything divided equally. However, they testified that either Annetta was not present when those statements were made or they could not remember whether she was present. Annetta denied she had heard her mother say she wanted everything divided equally and she and her mother had never discussed the disposition of the money in the joint account.

There is no contention Annetta did not fulfill her. duties as executrix under the explicit terms of the will. After Elda’s death, Annetta delivered the Franklin Mutual Fund certificates to Mark Twain Bank. The certificates were reissued, leaving them registered in each of the six children’s names. Annetta, as surviving joint tenant on the Mark Twain Bank account divided the account with two of her brothers, Henry and George. She gave each of them $10,842. She kept $52,300.

Marilyn, Grace, and Leonard sued Annet-ta, George, and Henry to impose a constructive trust on the funds that were held in the [729]*729joint accounts by Elda and Annetta. The trial court imposed a constructive trust only on the Mark Twain savings account # 100019ÍM, in the amount of $52,300. Judgment was entered in the amounts of $17,672.46 each in favor of Marilyn, Grace, and Leonard, all said sums against Annetta. No judgment was entered against Henry and George.

On appeal, Annetta, Henry, and George argue the trial court erred in imposing a constructive trust on the joint account with right of survivorship against the surviving joint tenant because there was insufficient evidence of a promise by the surviving joint tenant to receive the proceeds of the joint account and thereafter redistribute such proceeds equally among the devisees of Elda’s will. We agree.

Our review is governed by Murphy v. Carron, 536 S.W.2d 30 (Mo. banc 1976). We will affirm the judgment of the trial court unless there is no substantial evidence to support it, it is against the weight of the evidence, or the trial court has erroneously declared or applied the law. Id. at 32.

The current state of the law on joint bank accounts was recently recited in In the Estate of Hayward, 884 S.W.2d 10 (Mo.App.W.D.1994):

1. Ownership of joint accounts vests in the account survivor as a matter of law, absent evidence of fraud, undue influence, mental incapacity, or mistake [citations omitted].
2. The joint account statutes [§§ 362.470 and 369.150 RSMo 1986] dictate that the decedent’s intent to pass the funds to the account survivor is conclusively established by an account arrangement which comes within the terms of the statute, subject only to the exceptions mentioned above.' Such conclusive effect of the statute is binding not only in a dispute between the financial institution and an account claimant, but also as between the account survivor and another account claimant [footnote and citation omitted]. If the account is titled in such a way as to come within the terms of the applicable statute, evidence of the depositor’s intent is irrelevant, except in cases of fraud, undue influence, mistake, or mental incapacity [citation omitted].
3.Any co-tenancy arrangement in which the account is payable to either tenant is governed by the joint account statutes [citation omitted],

To establish a constructive trust, an extraordinary degree of proof is required. Fix v. Fix, 847 S.W.2d 762, 765 (Mo. banc 1993). The evidence must be unquestionable in character. Id. The evidence must be so clear, cogent, and convincing as to exclude every reasonable doubt in the mind of the trial court. Id. Generally, the evidence must show decedent made disposition of the property in question in reliance on an agreement, express or implied, to handle the money in a certain fashion and a subsequent breach of that agreement. Id. at 767.

In this ease, there is no evidence the joint bank account was established as a result of undue influence, mental incapacity, or mistake. Thus, the issue is whether the trial court correctly applied the law in imposing a constructive trust on the basis of fraud. Under this standard, there must be clear, cogent, and convincing evidence of a breach of trust on the part of Annetta. We conclude the trial court erroneously determined the evidence was sufficient to meet this high standard to establish Annetta had agreed to divide the money in the joint account equally and had subsequently breached this promise.

Several recent eases have discussed this evidentiary standard in great detail. In Fix, the case that set forth the standard, decedent executed a will that directed the personal representative, one of her brothers, to distribute her assets among her siblings. She also had joint accounts with right of survivor-ship with her sister, Billie. Decedent’s brother testified decedent had told him she had placed the money in the joint accounts with Billie to avoid probate and she trusted Billie and believed Billie would divide the money in accordance with the will. He said decedent had also stated she trusted Billie to “do the right thing.”

The wife of the personal representative testified decedent would not place the names [730]*730of any of her other siblings on the accounts because she did not want Billie to think she did not trust her. In addition, the wife testified decedent told her Billie knew what the decedent wanted done with the money, which was to divide the amounts equally among all her siblings.

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

Related

Schnuck v. Schnuck
912 S.W.2d 683 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1996)
Thurmon v. Ludy
914 S.W.2d 32 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
892 S.W.2d 727, 1994 Mo. App. LEXIS 1949, 1994 WL 705374, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kempen-v-long-moctapp-1994.