| Court: | WI Supreme Court |
| Facts: | Staver died, leaving a will. There's a provision that says the nephew gets 11 CDs. The executor says that they're part of the estate. But the CDs were all already payable to the nephew. |
| Posture: | Appeal from trial finding that the certificates were part of the estate. |
| Issue: | Did the nephew have title to the CDs by right of survivorship because he was a joint payee? |
| Holding: | Yes. Judgment reversed. |
| Rule: | Unless there's evidence of some different intent, a joint account belongs to both parties. |
| Reasoning: | If a contract is made for the sole benefit of a third person, the third person can enforce it, even if he's not party to the contract. That's analogous to this situation: the nephew wasn't party to the initial delivery, but that's when the giving took place, not at the time of the will. |
| Dicta: | Breitenbach v. Schoen is overruled. |