Whitney v. Canadian Bank of Commerce

The state appealed this case on one issue. That was, could a valid gift causa mortis be made of a checking account in a bank when the token of the gift was the bank passbook? The state accepted the facts as otherwise establishing a gift because it did not appeal the court’s decision that a gift of the savings account by delivery of the savings account passbook was a valid gift. The identical evidence supported both gifts. The majority is, therefore, placed in the anomalous position not only of deciding issues never presented to the trial court and not properly before us here, but of being…