Shirk v. Suburban Trust Co.

Horney, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Although unique in that it is an action at law rather than in equity, this case is another in a long line of cases concerning the rights of the surviving owner in and to joint bank accounts. Two accounts are involved in this controversy. One, a checking account, was opened in 1943.

The other, a savings account, was begun in 1951. Both accounts, in the College Park branch of the Suburban Trust Company, remained in the name of Mary M. Power until 1965. Prior to going to a hospital in September of that year for an emergency operation, the owner, who had always been apprehensive about her financial affairs and consistently paid her bills promptly, notified the bank that she wanted to add the name of a niece to the accounts and, while she was in the hospital, this was accomplished by a notation changing the single ownership of both accounts to a joint ownership reading— “Mrs. Mary Mowall Power in trust for self and Marjorie R. Shirk, joint owners, subject to the order of either, the balance at death of either to belong to the survivor.” ¹¹⁶ During the time her aunt was hospitalized, the niece transferred $1000 from the savings to the checking account and paid several household bills as well as hospital, medical and nursing bills. When the aunt was released from the hospital, she led an active life until her death at the hospital in April of 1966.

After her death, the niece properly reimbursed herself for the last hospital admittance charge she had prepaid out of her own funds and paid the last nursing charge out of the joint checking account. Accounting as of the date of death of the aunt there was $36,704 in the savings account and the checking account contained $2290.25. Two days after the funeral, the niece attempted to withdraw $2250 from the joint checking account by depositing a check for that amount in a building and loan association, but the bank refused to honor it. Later, the niece also attempted to withdraw $30,000 from the joint savings account.

Shortly thereafter the surviving owner filed separate declarations against the trust company alleging the existence of the joint accounts in the names of the original owner and herself, the decease of the co-owner and the claim of the plaintiff to the funds on deposit in each account. At the same time, the plaintiff filed motions for summary judgment and affidavits in support thereof. In turn, the defendant bank, as the depository and custodian of the funds and as the named executor of the estate of the co-owner, filed the customary general issue pleas of “never indebted” and “never promised” and special pleas 1 stating the reasons why it was not indebted to the plaintiff along with its answers in opposition to the motions (for summary judgment) and affidavits in support of its answers. In essence, the special pleas alleged that the joint accounts rightfully belonged to the estate of the deceased owner; that the accounts were changed from a single to a joint ownership solely for the purpose of having the plaintiff pay the household bills and medical expenses of the decedent during periods of her illnesses and hospitalizations; that the decedent did not intend to make a gift of the funds to the plaintiff; that the defendant was obliged to ¹¹⁷ protect the funds and preserve the assets of the estate; and that the trust company was not a mere stakeholder.

When the lower court, as a consequence of the summary judgment pleadings having raised a disputed question oí fact as to whether the defendant bank was indebted to the plaintiff, denied the motions for summary judgment and permitted the trust company, as executor of the estate of the decedent, to intervene in the lawsuits filed against it, the plaintiff prayed a jury trial. The evidence with respect to the intention of the decedent is clear. A sister-in-law testified without objection that Mary Power had set up the joint accounts because she was going blind and wanted Marjorie Shirk “to pay her bills for her.” Then, a teller at the bank (Helen Gillions) testified that the plaintiff told her, when she came for the necessary signature cards to bring about a change of ownership, that the aunt wanted her name on the accounts so that she could pay the bills when her aunt was sick. The manager of the bank (William Reading) also testified that the plaintiff told him that her aunt had put her name on the accounts so that she could pay the bills in an emergency.

A trust officer and the manager of the trust department (Thomas Lawson) testified that the plaintiff had said to him, in reply to his questions, that the joint accounts had been set up as a convenience for the payment of bills in the event her aunt was unable to take care of her own financial affairs and that it was her intention to turn over the balance in the accounts to the executor to be distributed in accordance with the will of her aunt. There was no evidence that the decedent intended the change of ownership as a gift. The niece never deposited any of her own money in the joint accounts and wrote checks on them only for the benefit of her aunt. The plaintiff did not testify on direct examination — the brief states she was prohibited from doing so under the provisions of § 3 of Article 35 of the Code— as to the transaction she had with the decedent.

But, on being recalled as a rebuttal witness, she categorically denied on cross-examination that the trust officer had asked her whether the bank accounts had been established as a matter of convenience. Instead she said that she did not realize she had a right to withdraw the money until the