OLD BANK ACCOUNT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22603, 16 December 1936, Page 16

OLD BANK ACCOUNT

OWNERSHIP DISPUTED TRUSTEES' CLAIM REFUSED The claim of executors in an estate valued at under £25,000 tor possession of an Auckland Savings Bank account in the name of their sister has been refused in a judgment delivered in the Supreme Court yesterday by Mr. Justice Fair. The action was brought by William Johnston Irvin and Miss Mary A. V. A. Irvin, as executors of the estate of their mother, Mrs. Margaret Amelia Irvin CMr. Lennard) against Mrs. Eleanor Johnston Brookes (Mr. Finlay and Mr. Butler). The original sum of £llO was deposited in November, 1011, and was completely lost sight of until the bank drew attention to it this year when endeavouring to clear up neglected accounts. It had thou grown to £216.

His Honor said it was admitted that the fact that the moneys had been deposited in Mrs. Brookes' name raised the presumption that they were intended by way of advancement to her. Ihe law was clear that a person depositing money in the name of one of her children was presumed to have intended to make a gift of the money to her child, unless there were circumstances that rebutted such a presumption. The fact that the account, in question was the only account with the Auckland Savings Bank which the deceased did not substantially exhaust pointed to it having been her intention to leave the amount intact, and to make it a gift.

Ihe plaintiffs, in His Honor's view, had failed to discharge the onus that lay upon them of proving that the amount was not intended as a gift. Judgment must be for defendant with costs.