## Facts

- Lola Jane Ingram held a checking account and a savings account on which her daughter, Shirley Gazalski, was added as a co-signer.
- Ingram also purchased three certificates of deposit (CDs) naming Gazalski as a co-tenant in joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
- Gazalski did not contribute to the accounts or CDs, did not receive CD interest during Ingram’s life, and did not use the funds for her own benefit.
- Four days before her death, Ingram executed a holographic will directing that her entire estate, “including bank account and CD,” be divided equally among her four children and naming Gazalski as personal representative.
- After Ingram’s death, Gazalski distributed proceeds from the house and car equally among the children but retained the funds in the bank accounts and CDs, claiming survivorship ownership.
- The trial court and intermediate appellate court treated both the bank accounts and CDs as estate assets; the Oklahoma Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether a will executed by one joint tenant can sever a valid joint tenancy so that the property passes through the decedent’s estate rather than by survivorship.
2. Whether bank accounts labeled “joint,” but lacking express survivorship language, create a valid joint tenancy under Oklahoma law.
3. Whether a constructive trust should be imposed on CDs that expressly provide for joint tenancy with right of survivorship based on alleged contrary intent.

## Decision

- The court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
- A will does not sever a joint tenancy; severance must occur during the decedent’s lifetime.
- The CDs were valid joint tenancies with right of survivorship and passed to Gazalski outside probate.
- The checking and savings accounts were not shown to be joint tenancies with survivorship and remained estate assets distributable under the will.
- The court declined to impose a constructive trust on the CDs.

## Legal Principles

- A joint tenancy’s survivorship feature vests at death; because a will is effective only at death, it cannot sever a preexisting joint tenancy.
- Joint tenancy in deposit instruments requires clear, express language (or comparably clear indicia) creating survivorship; a “joint” label or an additional signer, without survivorship terms, is insufficient.
- A constructive trust will not be imposed to defeat express survivorship terms absent clear and unequivocal evidence justifying that equitable remedy.

## Conclusion

The court enforced survivorship for CDs that expressly created joint tenancy with right of survivorship, held that a will cannot sever such a tenancy at death, and treated “joint” bank accounts without survivorship language as estate property subject to distribution under the decedent’s will.


In re Estate of Ingram, 874 P.2d 1282 (Okla. 1994)