A person dies intestate but added her sister as a joint owner of her bank account shortly before her death. The sister claimed that being a joint owner of the account trumps the provisions of the law as to the estate or, alternatively, her sister gave her the joint right to the account as a gift while she was still alive.
The Court held that a joint bank account is not a testamentary substitute and that adding a partner to a bank account in order to grant such partner the account funds only after the death of the original owner is not valid because the law sets that all funds are part of the estate. When a partner was added after the setting of the account and the person who originally set the account passed away, in order to see the other account holder a recipient of a gift one need to prove an intention to grant a gift upon the moment of joining the partner to the account rather than post mortem. In this case the sister was unable to clearly and unequivocally prove that the deceased intended to grant her a present while alive and no post mortem and thus the claim was rejected.