COA affirms wife must distribute $351K to late husband’s daughter

The wife and personal representative of a man who died in 2018 must provide more than $351,000 she cashed from an account that a trial court ruled belonged to the deceased’s daughter, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Monday.

The appeals panel affirmed a ruling of the Marion Superior Court in Julianne Solomon, Personal Representative of The Estate of Paul J. Martin v. Lia Lindsey, 20A-PL-822.

Julianne Soloman was the wife and personal representative for Paul Martin, who in 1998 opened a $50,000 trust fund in which he and his daughter, Lia J. Lindsey, were listed as joint owners with right of survivorship unless otherwise specified. The fund grew in value to $351,878.68 on July 6, 2018, when Solomon called Guggenheim Investments and asked that the joint account be withdrawn and the account closed.

“Solomon did most of the talking, but Martin did indicate his assent to the request and gave his permission for Solomon to speak on his behalf. At the conclusion of the call, the Guggenheim representative who handled the transaction gave Solomon a confirmation number to confirm that ‘we did the actual redemption.’ … On Monday, July 9, Martin died. Also on July 9, Guggenheim issued a check to ‘Paul J. Martin or Lia J. Lindsey’ in the amount of $351,878.68. … Per Martin’s request, the check was overnighted to his address,” Judge Margret Robb wrote.

After Martin’s death, Solomon was appointed personal representative and deposited the check in a separate estate account. Lindsey called Guggenheim in October and learned for the first time of Martin’s request and the check, leading her to file this lawsuit.

“Following a hearing, the trial court entered an order granting summary judgment to Lindsey and directing that ‘the proceeds of [$351,878.68] be immediately distributed by [Solomon PR] to Plaintiff Lia Lindsey’ … The trial court based its decision on the fact that Martin did not follow the statutory procedure to close a joint account and therefore ‘on the date of his death Mr. Martin had cash in joint account with Lia Lindsey . . . [that] belonged to [her] as the surviving joint account owner,’” Robb wrote.

The panel affirmed on interlocutory appeal, rejecting Solomon’s claims that the Marion Superior Court erred in applying Indiana law to the case and that Martin “lawfully withdrew the funds from the Joint Account before he died, and there was no right of survivorship in the check issued by Guggenheim or in the Check Redemption Account on which it was drawn.”

The COA instead found that the trial court correctly ruled that because proper procedure was not followed in closing the account, the money belonged to Martin’s daughter after his death. “As a matter of law, Lindsey is entitled to the proceeds of the check and the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to her is affirmed,” the panel concluded.