Telford v. Patton

Citations

• 144 Ill. 611
• 33 N.E. 1119

Syllabus

<p>1. Promissory note — certificate of deposit. A certificate of deposit showing the deposit in bank of a sum of money payable to the order of the depositor, in current funds on its return one year after date, with six per cent interest for the time specified, but no longer, is, in law and in fact, a promissory note.</p> <p>2. Same — disposal of by gift. A promissory note is not the subject of disposal as a gift, either inter vivos or mortis causa, without an actual delivery of it.</p> <p>3. Gift — donatio causa mortis — its requisites. There are three requisites to constitute a donatio causa mortis: (1) The gift must be with a view to the donor’s death; (2) it must have been made to take effect in the event of the donor’s death by his existing disorder; and (3) there must be an actual delivery of the subject of the donation.</p> <p>4. Same — inter vivos — requisites of. It is essential to a donation inter vivos that the gift be absolute and irrevocable; that the giver part with all present and future dominion over the property given; that the gift go into effect at once, and not at some future time; that there be a delivery of the thing given to the donee, and that there be “ such a change of possession as to put it out of the power of the giver to repossess himself of the thing given.”</p> <p>5. Same — of the delivery. To make such a gift the delivery of the thing given must be made with the intent to vest the title in the donee. But the delivery may be constructive, as of a key, or a part for the whole. It may be to a third person for the benefit of the donee, instead of being made directly to the donee himself.</p> <p>6. Same — gift inter vivos distinguished from a gift causa mortis. A gift inter vivos is chiefly distinguished from a gift causa mortis by the facts that the former is not made in view of expected or impending death, and that it is not revocable in its nature.</p> <p>7. A certificate of deposit may be the subject of a valid gift causa mortis, but i