Robinson v. Mutual Savings Bank

95 P. 533, 7 Cal. App. 642
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 5, 1908
DocketCiv. No. 411.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 95 P. 533 (Robinson v. Mutual Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Mutual Savings Bank, 95 P. 533, 7 Cal. App. 642 (Cal. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

HALL, J.

Plaintiff brought suit against the Mutual Savings Bank of San Francisco to recover the sum of $4,370.49 as the balance of money alleged to have been deposited by plaintiff with said bank.

Upon a showing by the defendant bank that Joseph Leggett and Charles H. Robinson, as executors of the last will of Amanda M. Scales, deceased, made claim to the same money, said defendant bank was allowed to deposit with the court said sum of $4,370, and was thereupon dismissed from the action, and said Leggett and Robinson, as such executors, were substituted as defendants.

Leggett and Robinson, as such executors, answered plaintiff’s complaint, and set up a claim to said money as part if the estate of Amanda M. Scales, deceased.

The findings and judgment were in favor of plaintiff and Against the substituted defendants, who have appealed from the judgment and the order denying their motion for a new trial.

Appellants attack the findings as not being supported by the evidence.

It is alleged in the complaint that prior to the commencement of the action plaintiff deposited with defendant, the Mutual Savings Bank of San Francisco, and the said defendant received of and from plaintiff, for the use. and benefit of plaintiff, the sum of $5,729.69, which said amount said defendant promised to repay to plaintiff, and that said defendant has repaid to plaintiff the sum of $1,359.20 and no more, thus leaving a balance of $4,370.49.

The substituted defendants, in their answer, deny the allegations of the complaint above set forth, and further allege that prior to the seventh day of July, 1904, Amanda M. Scales deposited said sum of $5,729.69 with said defendant, the Mutual Savings Bank of San Francisco, and caused said deposit to be made payable by said defendant to “Amanda M. Scales or Lizzie C. Robinson.” “That said Amanda M. Scales so directed and made said deposit payable to ‘Amanda M. Scales or Lizzie C. Robinson’ for the sole purpose of en *645 abling said Lizzie C. Robinson, as the agent of said Amanda M. Scales, to withdraw moneys from said deposit for the use and benefit of said ‘Amanda M. Scales,’ and as the same might be required by said Amanda M. Scales, or to be paid out by her through said Lizzie C. Robinson (the plaintiff herein) as the agent of said Amanda M. Scales.” That prior to the seventh day of July, 1904, said Amanda M. Scales withdrew from said deposit the sum of $1,359.20, and no more, leaving a balance on deposit with said defendant bank of $4,370.49.

Amanda M. Scales died on the seventh day of July, 1904.

The court found all the allegations of the complaint to be true, and also found “That it is not true that prior to the commencement of this action, and prior to the seventh day of July, 1904, or at any other time, Amanda M. Scales deposited with said defendant, Mutual Savings Bank of San Francisco, the sum of $5,729.69, or any sum.” “That it is not true that prior to the seventh day of July, 1904, or at any other time, said Amanda M. Scales withdrew from said deposit the sum of $1,359.20, or any sum whatever.”

From the foregoing statement of the contents of the pleadings and of the findings, it is apparent that the plaintiff’s complaint was framed upon the theory that all the money deposited was deposited by plaintiff for her own use and from her own money, and that Mrs. Scales deposited none of it, and had no interest therein, and that the court, in its findings fully adopted such theory of the facts.

No such theory can be sustained upon the facts disclosed by the record before us.

Mrs. Scales, at the opening of the account in question, was upward of eighty years of age and totally blind. The plaintiff had been in the habit of attending to business for her for several years before the opening of this account. The account was opened on March 10, 1902, by the deposit of a check for $1,149.05 belonging to Mrs. Scales, and was opened in the name of “Amanda M. Scales or Lizzie C. Robinson.” Every item of deposit belonged to Mrs. Scales at the time of its deposit, as is admitted by plaintiff on the witness-stand, save, possibly, one, which confessedly also did originally belong to Mrs. Scales. This item will be referred to later.

Concerning the opening of the account, the plaintiff testified in substance that she obtained a check for Mrs. Seales, pay *646 able to her, from Bovee, Toy & Sontagg for $1,149.05; that Mrs. Scales indorsed the check and plaintiff deposited it in the bank. In answer to the question “For what purpose did Mrs. Scales tell you at that time that she gave you that cheek?” the plaintiff said, “She wanted to establish a claim there that I could draw against—an account there that I could draw against, and pay bills for her, because she was constantly demanding such services of me, and she said, at the time, she said, ‘I want to open this little account; it will be a joint account; whatever is left after I am gone shall be yours.’ ” She further said that all the other deposits in the account were from Mrs. Scales, and came from rentals of her property and different sources.

Upon cross-examination she testified: “When this first deposit was made on the tenth day of March, 1902, Mrs. Scales told me that she wanted me to pay her bills out of the account, and to open that account for the purpose of enabling me conveniently to do that, and whatever remained after she died was to be mine; or that I could draw against it while she lived if I chose to. I never drew against it for any account, except her own, while she lived.”

The evidence shows without conflict that plaintiff, acting for Mrs. Scales, for her use and to pay her bills, drew from the account the sum of $1,359.20. Plaintiff also testified that Mrs. Scales also told her that she might draw from the account for her personal use, but she never did so.

The evidence above set forth does not support the finding that the sum of $5,729.69 was deposited with the bank by plaintiff for her use and benefit in the sense and meaning of the finding. In a legal sense the deposits were made by Mrs. Seales for her use and benefit. The plaintiff was acting simply as the agent of Mrs. Seales, and was depositing the money of Mrs. Scales for her use.

For the same reason the evidence does not support the finding of the court: “That it is not true that prior to the commencement of this action, and prior to the seventh day of July, 1904, or at any other time, Amanda M. Scales deposited with said defendant, Mutual Savings Bank of San Francisco, the sum of $5,729.69, or any other sum.” The money was deposited by Mrs. Scales, through her agent, the plaintiff, and likewise, in legal effect, whatever was ■ with *647 drawn was withdrawn by her through her agent, the plaintiff.

The evidence does not show a gift, by Mrs. Scales to plaintiff of all the moneys deposited in the account or of the account itself. Although the deposit was in the names of either, and either could draw therefrom as between themselves and the bank, this does not show a gift to plaintiff, nor constitute a joint tenancy or ownership with a right of survivorship. Mrs. Scales at all times retained the right herself to draw the money. She retained dominion over it. She never delivered the bankbook to plaintiff.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 P. 533, 7 Cal. App. 642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-mutual-savings-bank-calctapp-1908.