## Facts

- Sophie Cunningham (also referred to as Mrs. Werling) and her husband had three children, including two daughters: Caroline Werling Kitchen and Vivian Werling Guarisco.
- After Cunningham’s husband died, Cunningham opened five certificates of deposit (CDs) and a checking account at Whitney National Bank in the names of “Cunningham or Guarisco.”
- Across all six accounts, the paperwork and tax reporting showed Cunningham as the primary account holder:
  - Cunningham’s name appeared first on the accounts,
  - only Cunningham’s Social Security number was used for federal tax identification,
  - Cunningham’s address was listed for account contact and mailings,
  - the IRS Forms 1099 reporting interest were sent to Cunningham, and
  - Cunningham reported the interest income on her own tax returns.
- Kitchen presented detailed evidence at trial that Cunningham alone supplied the funds deposited into the CDs and the checking account, and that the money could be traced to sources such as Cunningham’s husband’s estate and a severance package from Cunningham’s former employer.
- Guarisco claimed the money was hers and testified that the accounts were intended to allow Cunningham to access Guarisco’s funds for Guarisco’s daughter if Guarisco died first, but Guarisco’s testimony was vague and unsupported by documents.
- Cunningham died in August 1994.
- After Cunningham’s death, Guarisco cashed out the five CDs and withdrew the funds from the Whitney checking account, keeping the proceeds.
- Kitchen, acting as administratrix of Cunningham’s estate, demanded that Guarisco return the money as succession property. When Guarisco refused, Kitchen filed suit to recover the funds as succession assets.
- Following a trial on the merits, the district court found that the accounts belonged to Cunningham, that Guarisco was added only for Cunningham’s convenience, and that the proceeds were properly included in the estate’s gross patrimony. The court ordered Guarisco to return roughly $26,000 (plus interest) to the estate.
- Guarisco appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether funds in “A or B” Whitney bank accounts and CDs, funded and treated for tax purposes as the decedent’s property, became the surviving joint accountholder’s property upon the decedent’s death.
2. Whether the surviving accountholder proved that the decedent made a completed inter vivos donation of the account funds to her.
3. Whether the trial court was manifestly erroneous in finding (a) the decedent was the sole source and owner of the funds and (b) the joint titling served only as a convenience.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Fourth Circuit affirmed.
- The court held that the record supported the trial court’s finding that Cunningham owned the funds in the five CDs and the Whitney checking account, and that the proceeds were properly included in her estate.
- The court upheld the order requiring Guarisco to return approximately $26,000 (plus interest) to the succession.
- Applying the manifest error/clearly wrong standard, the court declined to disturb the trial court’s credibility calls favoring Kitchen’s documentary proof over Guarisco’s unsupported testimony.

## Legal Principles

- Joint titling of a bank account or CD in the form “A or B” does not, by itself, establish that the survivor owns the funds after the other accountholder’s death.
- When a dispute arises over ownership of funds in a jointly titled account, courts look to evidence such as the source of the deposits, the parties’ conduct, and indicia of ownership (including tax reporting and account documentation) to determine beneficial ownership.
- A party claiming ownership by inter vivos donation bears the burden of proving donative intent and that a valid gift occurred; unsupported, self-serving testimony may be rejected in favor of corroborated records and circumstances.
- A trial court’s findings on intent, credibility, and ownership are factual determinations reviewed on appeal under the manifest error/clearly wrong standard; if the findings have a reasonable basis in the record, the appellate court will not reweigh the evidence.

## Conclusion

The Fourth Circuit affirmed the judgment requiring Vivian Guarisco to return the proceeds of the Whitney CDs and checking account to Sophie Cunningham’s estate because the evidence showed Cunningham alone funded and treated the accounts as her own, and Guarisco did not prove that Cunningham intended or completed a donation merely by adding Guarisco’s name to the accounts.


Kitchen v. Guarisco, 811 So. 2d 112 (2002)