## Facts

- The decedent maintained numerous savings accounts across institutions, some in her individual name and others styled in her name “as trustee” or “in trust for” various persons.
- She retained the passbooks, exercised exclusive control, and withdrew and shifted funds among accounts at will.
- Two accounts were opened in a savings institution in the form “Fanny Lattan, in trust for Emile R. Lattan,” funded with the decedent’s own money.
- During her lifetime, the decedent withdrew the entire balances from those two “in trust for Emile” accounts and closed them.
- After the decedent’s death, Emile (her nephew) filed a claim against the estate for approximately $1,775.03 plus interest, asserting the deposits created irrevocable trust funds that the decedent lacked authority to withdraw.

## Issues

1. Whether the Court of Appeals had jurisdiction where the intermediate appellate court stated it reversed “on the law and the facts,” but the evidence was undisputed and the dispute concerned the legal effect of those facts.
2. Whether a deposit of the depositor’s own funds in a savings account titled “A, as trustee for B,” without more, creates an irrevocable inter vivos trust, or instead creates a revocable tentative trust that becomes effective only if not revoked before the depositor’s death or if completed by an unequivocal lifetime act.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals exercised jurisdiction because the material facts were uncontroverted; the existence and character of any trust on those facts presented a question of law.
- The court reversed the order allowing Emile’s claim and reinstated dismissal of the claim.
- The court held that the “in trust for” form, standing alone, created only a tentative trust revocable at will during the depositor’s lifetime.
- Because the decedent withdrew the full balances and closed the accounts during life, any tentative trust was revoked and no enforceable trust corpus existed at death for Emile to recover.

## Legal Principles

- A savings deposit of the depositor’s own money in the depositor’s name “as trustee for” another, standing alone, does not create an irrevocable trust during the depositor’s lifetime.
- Such an arrangement is a tentative trust revocable at will, and it becomes absolute only if:
  - the depositor dies without revoking it (including by withdrawal), or
  - the depositor completes the gift during life by an unequivocal act or declaration (e.g., delivery of the passbook or clear notice to the beneficiary).
- When the depositor retains exclusive control and withdraws the funds during life, the beneficiary has no vested, presently enforceable equitable interest in the withdrawn sums.

## Conclusion

The court treated “in trust for” savings accounts as revocable tentative trusts unless the depositor clearly completes a present gift or dies with the funds still on deposit; lifetime withdrawal and account closure revoke the arrangement and defeat the beneficiary’s post-death claim to the withdrawn money.


Matter of Totten, 179 N.Y. 112, 71 N.E. 748 (N.Y. 1904)