Varela v. Bernachea

After roughly a year together, Carlos Bernachea asked Cristina Varela (plaintiff) to stop working and move in with him, paying her expenses and eventually adding her as a joint tenant with right of survivorship on his Merrill Lynch account, giving her a check card for access; they also opened a joint Southtrust account. After Bernachea suffered a heart attack and his daughters barred Varela from the hospital and directed her to vacate the apartment, Varela wrote a $280,000 check on the Merrill Lynch account and deposited it into her own account; Bernachea, once released, disputed her right to the funds and had Merrill Lynch reclaim and refuse to return the money. At trial, Bernachea claimed Varela's account access was restricted to the check card only, but the banker Jorge Herrera testified he fully explained the joint-tenancy implications to Bernachea, a retired attorney, in both English and Spanish, and neither he nor his assistant were ever instructed to restrict Varela's access. The trial court found Bernachea lacked donative intent, and Varela appealed.