Russell v. Hall

4 Citing cases

  1. White v. White

    319 S.E.2d 447 (Ga. 1984)   Cited 10 times

    She argues that title to the funds in the joint savings account with rights of survivorship similarly vested in her upon her former husband's death as a matter of contract between the parties and the savings and loan association. OCGA § 7-1-813 (a); Russell v. Hall, 245 Ga. 677 (2) ( 266 S.E.2d 491) (1980); White v. Royal, 150 Ga. App. 57 ( 256 S.E.2d 662) (1979). Finally, she urges that OCGA § 19-6-1 (e) did not prevent the former husband from changing the beneficiary designations on the policies, annuity, and retirement account, or from withdrawing funds from the joint savings accounts; she concludes that the funds in dispute are not marital property, but are separate property of hers, acquired after the divorce, hence not subject to equitable division under Stokes v. Stokes, 246 Ga. 765 (3) ( 273 S.E.2d 169) (1980).

  2. Adams v. Adams

    249 Ga. 477 (Ga. 1982)   Cited 12 times
    In Adams, we considered the constitutionality of the 1979 version of the year's support statute, which gave a widow or widower a right to financial support from a decedent spouse's estate.

    We have held that the grant of a life estate to the widow under a will does not preclude an award of year's support. Kinard v. Clay, 138 Ga. 544 ( 75 S.E. 636) (1912); Russell v. Hall, 245 Ga. 677 ( 266 S.E.2d 491) (1980). In this case, it was plainly the design of the testator that his widow enjoy his estate during her lifetime, and, were the life estate "inadequate to support my wife in the manner to which she has been accustomed during our marriage ...," she might then encroach upon the corpus.

  3. Hunter v. Hunter

    569 S.E.2d 919 (Ga. Ct. App. 2002)   Cited 6 times
    Holding that probate court abused its discretion in awarding requested year's support because the widow did not meet burden of proof with regard to amount necessary for her support after beneficiaries under decedent's will filed a caveat challenging the requested amount as excessive

    Nothing in the will required the surviving spouse to make an election between the life estate and year's support. Russell v. Hall, 245 Ga. 677, 678 ( 266 S.E.2d 491) (1980); OCGA § 53-3-3. In order to sustain the probate court's year's support award and denial of the caveat, there must be some evidence that the amount of property awarded bears a reasonable relationship to the amount the surviving spouse needs for a period of 12 months from the decedent's death to maintain the standard of living she had prior to the decedent's death.

  4. Parker v. Peavey

    403 S.E.2d 213 (Ga. Ct. App. 1991)   Cited 4 times

    There being no clear and convincing evidence to contradict the statutory presumption that the decedent intended for appellant to have the right of survivorship, we find the funds deposited in this joint account belonged to appellant individually as the surviving party and not to the decedent's estate. Id. at 80-81; see Russell v. Hall, 245 Ga. 677, 679 (2) ( 266 S.E.2d 491) (1980). As a result, appellant had no authority in her capacity as executrix to transfer the funds on deposit in the joint account, see OCGA §§ 7-1-814; 7-1-817, and thus her signature as executrix was insufficient as a matter of law to constitute a delivery of the funds to appellees.