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69 Vt. 243

Watson v. Watson

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided October 15, 1896

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1896-10-15

Trover for a savings bank deposit book. Plea, not guilty. Trial by court at the March Term, 1895, Windham County, Rowell, J., presiding. The intestate died in 1880. Sometime before, she delivered the book in question to the defendant with directions to keep it and permit the deposit to remain until the plaintiff, a son of the intestate, was dead and then to divide the deposit among her other* children. The defendant accepted and has ever since held the book for that purpose.

Relies on Ridden v. . Thrall · Pierce v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank · Camp's Appeal from Probate

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Judgment, upon the facts found, for the defendant · Decided 1896-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently June 1950

11 state decisions

501896190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Thompson, J.

¶1The question determinative of this case, is whether or not the delivery of her deposit book by the plaintiff’s intestate to the defendant, was a consummated gift of the bank deposit to the defendant in trust as stated in the finding of facts. In savings banks in this State, such *245deposit books are issued to the depositors as evidence of the indebtedness of the banks. Withdrawals of deposits are entered in the same books, so that the deposit book always, with the addition of interest, shows the actual state of the accounts between the bank and the depositor, and the entire indebtedness of the bank. The general rule in this country and England, is that the delivery of property which transfers to the donee either the legal or equitable title, is sufficient to effectuate a gift; and hence it has-been held that the mere delivery of non-negotiable notes, bonds, mortgages, or certificates of stock, is sufficient to effectuate a gift. The deposit book in the. case of a savings bank, answers the same purpose as a certificate of deposit in the case of other banks. In this case, the delivery of the deposit book to the defendant, consummated the gift, and no other formality was necessary to constitute the actual delivery of the bank deposit, and vest the possession and title in the donee. Grover, Admr. v. Grover, 24 Pick. 261; Pierce v. Savings Bank, 129 Mass. 425: 37 Am. Rep. 371; Camp's Appeal, 36 Conn. 88: 4 Am. Rep. 39; Hill v. Stevenson, 63 Me. 364: 18 Am. Rep. 231; Ridden v. Thrall, 125 N. Y. 572: 21 Am. St. Rep. 758; Tillinghast v. Wheaton, 8 R. I. 536: 94 Am. Dec. 126; Hackett v. Moxley, 65 Vt. 71.

¶2In case the donor is living, the donee can maintain an action against the savings bank for the deposit, in the name of the donor; if the donor is dead, the action can be brought by the donee in the name of the donor’s administrator. Pierce v. Savings Bank, 129 Mass. 425. In either event the suit would be controlled by the donee and the recovery had for his benefit. Hence the plaintiff’s contention that he is entitled to the deposit book to collect the deposit, even though it belongs to the defendant, cannot be maintained.

¶3Judgment affirmed.

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