Estate of Drucker

Brown & Adler and John Adler for Objector and Appellant.

Crabtree & Goodwin, Brooks Crabtree and Daniel B. Crabtree for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

WIENER, J.

Jane Denham Cornish, executrix of the estate of Janet C. Drucker, deceased, appeals the orders determining Ann C. Hall to be the owner as surviving joint tenant of (1) a bank account at La Jolla Bank & Trust Company (La Jolla account) and (2) the proceeds of a $25,000 treasury bill. Although the source of the La Jolla account and the treasury bill was a joint tenancy account between Drucker and Hall, those items were in Drucker's name alone at the time of her death. Because the joint tenancy was not a true joint tenancy we reverse with instructions to enter orders in favor of the executrix.

In August 1981, Hall petitioned under Probate Code section 851.5 for a declaration that she was the sole owner as surviving joint tenant of the La Jolla account opened by Janet Drucker, deceased. Finding Hall owned the account, the court granted her motion for judgment on the pleadings and ordered Cornish to give the money in the account to Hall. This court reversed the judgment in an unpublished opinion (4 Civ. No. 26554)…