SHORT HILLS MEDIATION

In this case concerning the disposition of joint bank accounts on the death of one of the parties to the account, the panel affirms the trial court’s judgment, agreeing with 4 of decedent’s 5 daughters and finding that the balance of certain joint accounts established by the decedent with her 5th daughter are the property of her estate, to be distributed equally among the 5 daughters according to her will. The panel rejects the 5th daughter’s claim that the accounts gave a right of survivorship to her, and that, at decedent’s death, the accounts belonged to her exclusively. The trial court aptly found that the 5th daughter (1) had a confidential relationship with the decedent; (2) had to rebut the presumption that decedent’s creation of the joint accounts was the product of undue influence; and (3) had failed to do so.    I/M/O Estate of Balgar, New Jersey App. Div., April 17, 2007