Carroll v. Hahn

I dissent.

The court has been presented with two valid joint accounts with one common joint depositor who appropriated the funds of one account to establish the second. We are asked to choose between the two. Resolution of the dilemma must turn on analysis of the two substantive issues raised by this case: (1) what rights accrue to co-tenants of a joint account opened according to statute; and (2) what effect is to be given to appropriation of all funds from a joint account by one co-tenant.

At common law, plaintiff Carroll’s claim to the funds in question would fail. A common law joint tenancy…