Texas Appellate Court Decides That One Contract Can Govern Multiple Credit Union Accounts

A Credit Union used a single contract to govern all of a customer's accounts opened under the same membership number.  The contract provided that any joint accounts opened under the contract would have rights of survivorship.  After one party (husband) to the joint account died, the Credit Union paid all funds in the joint account to the survivor (wife).  The Independent Executor claimed that the later joint account lacked the survivorship feature because the specific account lacked its own survivorship agreement.  The Independent Executor asserted that the estate was entitled to one-half of the account because the account contained community property.  The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Credit Union and the Independent Executor appealed.  A Texas Appellate Court held that the language of the contract which both husband and wife signed governed all of the accounts they had in Credit Union whether they were open at the time they signed the agreement or thereafter.

See Kennemer v. Fort Worth Cmty. Credit Union, 335 S.W.3d 843 (Tex. App.--El Paso 2011, pet. filed).

Posted by William Alan Nelson II, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal