Presgrove v. Robbins

1969 OK 13, 451 P.2d 961
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 21, 1969
Docket42688
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1969 OK 13 (Presgrove v. Robbins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Presgrove v. Robbins, 1969 OK 13, 451 P.2d 961 (Okla. 1969).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

This action arose out of a controversy between plaintiff in error, a daughter of the late Mrs. B. D., or Nellie, Robbins, by her predeceased first husband, the late Thomas S. Barnes, and defendant in error, B. Dan Robbins, Nellie’s second, and only surviving, husband, over the ownership of *963 a 1963 Ford Sedan purchased and used by the said Mr. and Mrs. Robbins during their marriage, a balance of $1040.94 in a joint checking account in The National Bank of McAlester, at the time of Mrs. Robbins1 death on May 21, 1965, and more than $19,000.00 in two savings accounts in the Phoenix Federal Savings and Loan Association, all three of which accounts bore the names of both Mr. and Mrs. Robbins. Basically, plaintiff in error’s theory seems to be that this automobile was purchased, and these accounts were derived from the income, and proceeds, of her father’s estate, which, after his death, were held in trust by her mother, Nellie, under a sort of lifetime proprietorship for the benefit of the couple’s surviving children. Defendant in error claims that this personal property was derived from some of his own funds and from gifts of money to him by Nellie under joint tenancy arrangements.

Mrs. Robbins’ above named first husband, Barnes, died intestate in March, 1948, leaving approximately 1400 acres of Pittsburg County land (hereinafter referred to as the “Barnes land”) on a part of which he and Nellie resided, near Adam-son, Oklahoma. Besides plaintiff in error, and her mother, Nellie, said intestate, Barnes, was survived by three sons, namely: Henry Harold, Thomas J., and Robert Allen. Either before, or after, the close of the administration proceedings covering the Barnes estate, these surviving siblings, all of whom were then adults, except plaintiff in error (hereinafter referred to as “plaintiff”) who, at that time, was under the legal impediment of minority, relinquished to their mother, Nellie, their inherited interests in their father’s estate. After plaintiff became of age and was no longer under the guardianship of her said mother, she also conveyed her interest to Nellie.

Thereafter, on a trip to California in the summer of 1956, Nellie became acquainted with defendant in error (hereinafter referred to as “defendant”), a former Oklahoman who had then resided in Los Ange-les several years, and whose second wife, the former Martha Gough, had died as recently as June 17, 1956. Preparatory to marrying defendant, Nellie, upon her return home from California, procured the drafting of a written instrument entitled “ANTENUPTIAL AGREEMENT” to be signed by her and the defendant. After this agreement was mailed to him from Oklahoma, defendant signed it before a Los Angeles Notary Public, on September 21st of that year, and, upon its return to her in Oklahoma, Nellie signed the instrument before a Pittsburg County Notary, a few days later. The pertinent part of said agreement reads as follows:

“ * * * the said Dan Robbins and Nellie Barnes, hereby agrees, covenants and declares it to be his and her desire that during their marriage each of them shall be and continue completely independent of the other as regards the enjoyment and disposal of all property owned by either of them at the commencement of the marriage, and each of them hereby agrees and covenants with the other, in view and consideration of their proposed marriage that so far as it is legally possible by their private act and agreement, all the property belonging to Nellie Barnes at the commencement of the marriage shall remain her individual property to be held exclusively by her and be subject to her disposition as her separate property in the same manner as if the said proposed marriage had never been celebrated.
“It is mutually agreed between the parties hereto that Dan Robbins will at no time claim any portion or interest in the property owned by Nellie Barnes at the commencement of said marriage, and in consideration of the premises, promises and covenants of each, it is agreed herein that Dan Robbins does not now assert any claim or interest in the property owned by Nellie Barnes, nor will he do so during the coverture of the contemplated marriage, nor will he receive or claim any portion or interest in said property upon the death of the *964 said Nellie Barnes unless she should specify and set out said interest by a will, * * *
* * * .” (Emphasis added).

Thereafter, Nellie returned to California and, later, she and defendant were married on October 13, 1956, at Las Vegas. He was then sixty-eight years of age, and she was a few years younger. After their return from the wedding trip, they resided in the same Los Angeles home in which defendant and his former wife, Martha, had lived together, and defendant continued to work as a "trimmer” for the Yellow Cab Company, in that City.

In May, 1957, the Los Angeles home was sold, and the couple returned to- Pitts-burg County to live at the Barnes’ homestead.

Shortly thereafter, defendant, through Mr. Priddy of the National Bank of Mc-Alester, transferred to that bank, from his California bank, the sum of $6578.17, derived from the sale of his equity in his Los Angeles home, plus the proceeds of his terminal wage check from the aforesaid Yellow Cab Company, with which a joint tenancy checking account for him and his wife was established in said Mc-Alester bank, on May 17, 1957.

Some time thereafter, defendant applied for, and started receiving Social Security benefits of $167.67, of which $52.00 represented Nellie’s entitlement, as his wife.

In 1960, plaintiff who was then, or had been married to a man named “Johnston”, and lived in Duncan, accepted a loan from Nellie of some $6,000.00 to buy some land near that City, and thereafter repaid only $800.00 of it.

On July 3rd, 1961, Nellie and the defendant opened a joint savings account in Phoenix Federal Savings and Loan Association, at McAlester (hereinafter sometimes referred to merely as “Phoenix Federal” or “Savings and Loan Association”), with an initial deposit of $7500.00. This account was designated as Account “No. 3033”.

In the same year, Nellie and the defendant purchased a house in Haileyville for $3,000.00, and, after remodeling and improving it, sold it that Fall to a Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe Ward for about $4,000.00. On the sale price, the Wards made a down payment of $500.00, and, for the balance, gave Nellie and the defendant their promissory note due January 1, 1969, secured by a real estate mortgage on the property. The mortgagees named in said encumbrance were: “B. D. Robbins and Nellie M. Robbins, husband and wife, as joint tenants and as tenants in common with right of survivorship.” By arrangement with the aforesaid McAlester Bank, Mr. and Mrs. Ward’s payments of $50.00 per month on this obligation are still being received by said Bank, and deposited in the aforementioned joint checking account.

On June 14, 1962, by a check dated that date on hers and the defendant’s joint bank account, Nellie gave plaintiff $4,000.00, thus supplementing the aforementioned $6,000.00 she had given her, originally, as a loan, only a small part of which had been repaid, as aforesaid.

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Bluebook (online)
1969 OK 13, 451 P.2d 961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/presgrove-v-robbins-okla-1969.