Turnipseed v. Drummond, Adm'r

63 So. 2d 536, 217 Miss. 129, 25 Adv. S. 61, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 417
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1953
DocketNo. 38709
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 63 So. 2d 536 (Turnipseed v. Drummond, Adm'r) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Turnipseed v. Drummond, Adm'r, 63 So. 2d 536, 217 Miss. 129, 25 Adv. S. 61, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 417 (Mich. 1953).

Opinion

McGehee, C. J.

On June 23, 1950, Jane Thompson Fikes, who was in her nineties and referred to as “the oldest Negro woman in the City of Meridian,” went to the office of an attorney in company with the appellant Alberta Fikes Turnip-seed, who-was her niece, and where they obtained legal advice as to how they could arrange for the appellant to draw checks on the funds of “Aunt Jane” for the payment of the bills of the latter who was sometime unable to go to town for that purpose. They were advised by the attorney that “Aunt Jane” could put the funds which she then had on deposit in two banks of the city into one account in her name and that of the appellant with the right of survivorship, the attorney having understood, and offered to testify at the trial, that “Aunt Jane” wanted the appellant to have whatever money there was left at her death. The record is silent as to whether “Aunt Jane” meant by the words “whatever money was left,” that which would be left after the payment of her debts and funeral expenses, except for certain admissions (which will be hereinafter related more in detail) made by the defendant to other relatives of “Aunt Jane” after the latter’s death in regard to why the joint account was established.

On that same day “Aunt Jane” and the appellant established the joint account at the Citizens National Bank, Meridian, Mississippi, where “Aunt Jane” had a balance of $47.01 on deposit and to which she added a deposit of $560.00 which she had that day withdrawn from the First National Bank in Meridian for that pur[134]*134pose, the joint account being established in the name of Jane Pikes or Alberta Pikes, but the deposit card being signed on that day at the bank by “Jane Pikes, Alberta Pikes Turnipseed” and contained among other provisions the following: “The undersigned agree and declare that all funds now, or hereafter, deposited in this account are, and shall be, our joint property and owned by us as joint tenants with the right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common; and upon the death of either of us any balance in said account shall become the absolute property of the survivor. The entire account or any part thereof may be withdrawn by, or upon the order of, either of us or the survivor. It is especially agreed that withdrawals of funds by the survivor shall be binding upon heirs, next of kin, legatees, assigns, and personal represenattives.”

“Aunt Jane” lived until about November 24, 1950, and in the meantime there had been only two checks drawn on this joint account, one for $21.75 and one for $2.00, bearing date of August 28,1950. At the time of the death of “Aunt Jane” there was a balance in the account of $647.49; and this amount was withdrawn from the bank by the appellant on December 6, 1950, the day following the appointment of the appellee D. C. Drummond as administrator of the estate of Jane Thompson Pikes, deceased.

It was alleged in the bill of complaint of the administrator and admitted in the answer of the defendant Alberta Pikes Turnipseed that the latter did not pay the burial expenses of “Aunt Jane,” which the proof disclosed was the sum of $390.00, and it was shown that other unpaid bills were found in “Aunt Jane’s” house after her body was found in the house a few days after her death.

The suit was for the recovery of the said sum of $647.49 and the case was transferred to the circuit court for trial on motion of the defendant and without objection on the part of the complainant. At the trial in the circuit court [135]*135the plaintiff offered ample proof to go to the jury on the issue of mental incapacity on the part of “Aunt Jane” to have entered into a valid contract with the defendant such as is evidenced by the deposit card whereby the joint account was established. There was also introduced on behalf of the defendant a number .of witnesses to establish the contrary view, and to thus present an issue of fact for the jury in that behalf.

The proof on behalf of the plaintiff further disclosed that after the death of “Aunt Jane” the defendant was approached by other relatives and asked, “Do you think you did right about the money?” Her answer was, “What, the way it was used, Aunt Jane and I made a joint account that I using to pay her debts and her funeral out of the money”; that further complaint was made to the defendant in these words: “Now, you got that certificate, and you carried Aunt Jane, and had it made a joint account. Do you think that was right to try to take it”; and that the defendant’s answer was, “Well, I am going to pay her funeral bill and the debts with the money.” As heretofore stated, it was alleged in the original bill of complaint in the chancery court, which was treated as a declaration in the circuit court, and was admitted in the answer of the defendant filed in the circuit court, that the defendant has never paid the funeral bill, and it was not shown on behalf of the defendant that she has paid the other unpaid bills that were found after the death of “Aunt Jane.”

The bill of complaint, which was later treated as the declaration in the circuit court as aforesaid, charged, among other things, that: “The deceased had a bank account in the Citizens National Bank in Meridian, Miss., No. 14936, and the defendant went to the home of deceased June 23, 1950, and professed friendship and relationship to and for deceased, at a time when deceased was suffering from senile dementia, and persuaded the deceased to go with defendant to said bank and change said [136]*136account into a joint account in-the names of deceased and the defendant under the pretext that deceased would have to have her burial expenses paid, and unless deceased put deceased’s money in a joint account, there would be no one who could pay deceased burial expenses and thus persuaded deceased to so place her money in said bank on June 23, 1950.”

The defendant in her answer denied that she went to the home of the deceased on June 23, 1950, at a time when deceased was suffering from senile dementia, and persuaded the deceased to go with defendant to said bank and change said account into a joint account for the purpose alleged in the foregoing quoted paragraph. The only proof offered by the plaintiff to sustain the charge that the defendant went to the home of the deceased on that day and persuaded her to go with the defendant to the bank and change the account into a joint account, was in. the nature of circumstantial evidence in that regard, it having been shown without dispute that the defendant on that day accompanied “Aunt Jane” to the office of the attorney and that they both signed the deposit card at the bank on that day following the conference with the attorney, and also that “Aunt Jane” would get lost on many occasions when she left her house alone.

■ The proof as to what occurred at the office of the attorney, and the testimony of the attorney as to the mental capacity of “Aunt Jane” to have made a valid contract with the defendant, was heard out of the presence of the jury and was excluded. In other words, the attorney was denied the right to testify because of the relationship of attorney and client, and the denial of this right is assigned as error on the ground that the conference was had between the attorney and both of the other parties, and was in regard to a matter which they both made public by going to the bank and acting on the advice given by the attorney.

[137]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 So. 2d 536, 217 Miss. 129, 25 Adv. S. 61, 1953 Miss. LEXIS 417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turnipseed-v-drummond-admr-miss-1953.