84 Md. App. 629 - Barker v. Aiello’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently October 2015
14 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Relies on Milholland v. Whalen · Whalen v. Milholland · Goodwin v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. · Ragan v. Kelly · Coburn v. Shilling
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Maryland distinguishes between joint bank accounts and joint trust accounts. Joint bank accounts do not contain trust language, and the depositor retains legal and equitable title to the monies. Whalen v. Milholland, 89 Md. 199 , 43 A. 45 (1899) (Milholland I). In order for a donee-beneficiary to inherit there must be a perfected inter vivos gift by the donor-decedent. Otherwise, locus penitentiae remains in the owner who then retains control and dominion over the funds. 89 Md. at 201, 43 A. 45 . In Milholland I, the passbook entry read: “Elizabeth O’Neill and Mary Whalen. Joint owners. Payable to the order of either or the surviv- or.” The court held that Mrs. O’Neill did not make a valid and effective gift to Mrs. Whalen, despite the wording “joint owners,” because Mrs. O’Neill retained the passbook and there was no effective delivery. The balance in the account was held an asset of the estate. Milholland I, 89 Md. at 202, 43 A. 45 . A trust account does not necessarily contain trust language, either. Pearre v. Grossnickle, 139 Md. 274, 279 , 115 A. 49 (1921). The donor’s act creates the trust, but it is the donor’s “intention with which he does the act that is material.” Milholland v. Whalen, 89 Md. 212, 216 , 43 A. 43 (1899) (Milholland II). The general rule regarding trust accounts in Maryland, stemming from Milholland II and its progeny, is that a revocable trust account is presumed to exist where there is an unexplained passbook entry containing trust language, “becaus”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.