Roehr v. Pittman

This is a declaratory judgment proceeding in which the parties seek to determine the ownership of a savings account in the defendant bank.

The question presented is whether the balance in a joint savings account became the property of the surviving joint depositor or constituted an asset of the estate of the other joint depositor.

The decedent, Helen Hosken, and her daughter, Ruth Pittman, executed a signature card for a joint checking account and a signature card for a joint savings account. Each signature card provided, among other things, that upon the death of one of the joint depositors…