Bibby v. Bibby
Bibby v. Bibby
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The one issue in the case was as to the ownership of a certain deposit of $2,110.34 in the Prankford Trust Company, made September 7,1911, by Jennie R. Bibby, and standing in her name “in trust for Matthew J. Bibby, Jennie R. Hodson and Edwin Bibby.” Jennie R. Bibby was the wife of the plaintiff in the bill, and died some three weeks after making the deposit. The
With respect to the excess $960.34, we have a like finding in the plaintiff’s favor, but careful examination of the evidence fails to disclose anything to justify it. The finding is as follows:
“As to the balance of the fund $960.34, the answer admits that it was ‘fruits of her earnings from keeping boarders and conducting a shoe store in her own name.’ As the shoe store belonged to the plaintiff, the profits of the business also belonged to him, and as it was not shown what, if any part of this sum belonged to Jennie R. Bibby, the court holds that Thomas J. Bibby is entitled to the whole sum.”
The bill contains no averment that any profits derived from the shoe business entered into the deposit; nor was there any evidence, even the slightest, that the business had yielded profits, or any warranting the inference that if any were yielded that they had passed into the possession of the wife. On the contrary, the evidence offered by plaintiff clearly shows that he had from time to time given unconditionally considerable sums to his wife out of his gains and earnings in other enterprises, at one time as much as $300, and at others sums smaller in amount but in the aggregate quite sufficient to explain her individual ownership of this excess, to say nothing of the claims set up in the an
Reference
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- Husband and wife — Trusts and trustees — Proceeds of business 'carried on by husband — Equity. 1. Upon a bill in equity filed by a husband to impress with a trust in his favor a certain sum of money which plaintiff’s wife, since deceased, had deposited in a bank in her name in trust for their children, and in which the allegation of the bill was that a certain part of the money consisted of the proceeds of the sale of certain merchandise belonging to the husband, and the answer did not deny that the merchandise was sold and the proceeds of the sale entered into the bank deposit, but averred that the merchandise so sold was the property of the wife, a finding by the chancellor that the portion in question rightfully belonged to the husband will not be disturbed upon appeal, where the evidence showed that the business from which the merchandise was taken was carried on in a building owned by the husband and was conducted in his name, that the stock was replenished from time to time by goods purchased in his name and charged to him, and that all the usual indicia pointed to his ownership, although incidentally it showed a management and control of the business by the wife in various ways. 2. In such a case, a further finding by the chancellor that the balance of the sum deposited rightfully' belonged to the husband was reversed upon appeal, where the evidence by the plaintiff, instead of discharging the burden upon hiin of establishing the fact that the money deposited by the wife was his money, gave decided support to the legal presumption contained in the case, that the money wag the wife’s.