PART I. TRUST DEPOSITS. § 1. Trust deposits. The term "trust deposit," as used in the following pages has reference to deposits in the name of one person, as trustee for another. Many banks, especially savings banks, carry a large number of such accounts. The money generally belongs to the depositor and the cases disclose that the motives which actuate him in depositing his money in a trust account are various. Sometimes it is done as a matter of con venience in drawing the money. In many instances the deposit is made in this form because he has already deposited in his individual name the limit allowed by statute, or by the rules of the bank, and wishes to increase his deposit. In a certain percentage of cases the intent of the depositor is just what the form of the deposit implies, and he wishes to create a trust of the fund in favor of the person whom he designates as beneficiary, or the cestui que trust, as the beneficiary is legally termed. The difficulty, which confronts the courts in fixing the rights of the parties, lies in determining the intent of the depositor. The question usually arises after the depositor's death and his intention can be determined only from the circumstances surrounding the transaction. And his intention is all important for upon it depends the question of whether or not a valid trust was created. It is fully as necessary to the creation of a valid trust that the depositor intended to create a trust as it is for him to take the necessary steps to accomplish that result. Undoubtedly depositors of trust accounts very frequently adopt this method of disposing of their estate after their death. They wish to thereby avoid the making of a will or the appointing of an administrator to settle their estate, and this the law does not permit, as is pointed out in the subsequent sections. In the pages which follow it is attempted to set forth and explain the rules which the courts have formulated regulating trust deposits. It will be found that decisions are not in entire harmony. Not only are the decisions of the different jurisdictions at variance, but there are also instances of conflict between decisions arising in the same jurisdiction. 2. Mere deposit by one person in trust for another does not establish an irrevocable trust. The mere fact that a person has deposited his money in a bank in his own name, in trust for another person, does not in itself establish an irrevocable trust in favor of the person named as beneficiary. In other words a deposit in the form of a trust is not conclusive evidence of an intention to create a trust.1 1. Jewett v. Shattuck, (1878), 124 Mass. 590; Williams v. Brooklyn Savings Bank, (1900), 51 N. Y. App. Div. 332, 64 N. Y. Supp. 1021; Miller v. Seaman's Bank for Savings, (1901), 33 Misc. Rep. (N. Y.) 708, 68 N. Y. Supp. 983; Rush v. South Brooklyn Savings Institution, (1909), 65 Misc. Rep. (N. Y.), 66, 119 N. Y. Supp. 726; Weber v. Bank for Savings, N. Y. 1878, City Ct. Rep. 70; People's Savings Bank v. Webb, (1899), 21 R. I. 218, 42 Atl. Rep. 874. |