Smith v. Smith

This is an appeal by Pauline Smith from an order of the Circuit Court of Jackson County regarding the disposition of funds in a decedent’s bank account. The court ruled that the funds passed to the decedent’s heirs rather than the appellant even though the account was a joint survivorship account registered in the names of the decedent and the appellant. In making its ruling, the court, apparently relied upon our decision in Kanawha Valley Bank v. Friend, 162 W. Va. 925, 253 S.E.2d 528 (1979), where we refused to apply the presumption of a gift which arises from the creation of a joint bank…