In re Estate of Filfiley
Surrogate’s Court of King’s County, New York
313 N.Y.S.2d 793 (1970)
Mrs. Filfiley converted a trust account she created for her daughter Alice (defendant) into a joint bank account with Alice; one day before Mrs. Filfiley's death, Alice withdrew the entire account balance and redeposited it in an account in her own name. Mr. Filfiley (plaintiff), electing to take against his wife's will, sought to bring the joint account into her estate, arguing it was actually a mere convenience account (not a true joint tenancy) and that Mrs. Filfiley lacked mental capacity when she created it; Alice claimed she had prior authorization for the withdrawal, and both sides claimed to be the true source of the account's funds without proving it.
Whether a surviving joint tenant's withdrawal of an entire joint bank account's funds shortly before the other joint tenant's death is a nullity, entitling the survivor to the whole fund by right of survivorship, in the absence of evidence the account was something other than a true joint tenancy.