Murphy v Murphy and Hegarty

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1945
• Date: 01 January 1945
• Court: Circuit Court

(Cir. Ct.),

Murphy

and

Murphy and Hegarty

Bank deposit account opened by widow in her sole name -Transfer of account to names of widow and daughter - Subsequent transfer to name of daughter alone - Account operated on by daughter in widow's lifetime - Whether the doctrine of advancement applicable - Presumption of a resulting trust.

When a mother places a sum of money, to which she is absolutely entitled, upon a bank deposit account in the sole name of her daughter, an equitable presumption of advancement, sufficient, if not displaced, to rebut a resulting trust in favour of the mother, will arise if the mother stands in loco parentis to the daughter, but not otherwise. A widow, who was the owner of a farm of land which she worked and managed with the assistance of her son and daughter and upon which all three resided, placed a sum of money on deposit account in a bank in her own name in the year 1927, transferring it first, in 1936, into the names of herself and her daughter and subsequently, in 1937, into the sole name of the daughter. The daughter afterwards lodged several further sums to the credit of, and withdrew various sums from, the said account. There was evidence that the widow had intended to settle on the daughter...