Estate of Aiello

Paul Jay Fukushima for Objector and Appellant.

Hitchcock, Bowman & Poole and Robert Schachter for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

KAUS, P.J.

R.R. Moreland appeals from a judgment declaring that $34,988.75, which had been deposited in a joint tenancy savings account, was held by him in a constructive trust for the beneficiaries named in decedent Rose Aiello's will, and ordering that he transfer the sum to the estate.

In a last will and testament executed on January 22, 1968, decedent named R.R. Moreland of Moreland's Mortuary as her executor. The will contained three significant provisions. First, Moreland's Mortuary was to "have charge of [decedent's] funeral and... all expenses for funeral and of [her] illness [were to] be taken care of first." Second, the balance of the estate was bequeathed in equal shares to her nephew, Alphonsus Apuzzo, and her niece, Florence Exner, both of New York. Third, her sister Maria Apuzzo was to receive a bequest of $1. The will was witnessed by two ladies who worked in Moreland's funeral establishment.

Shortly after the will was executed — on February 9, 1968 — decedent converted her savings account to a joint tenancy account in which she…