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STATE OF MAINE SUPERIOR COURT

CUMBERLAND, ss. CIVIL ACTION DOCKET NO. CV-08-565

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ESTATE OF ORIN PERRY,
Plaintiff DECISION AND ORDER
v.
KEY BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, Defendant.
BEFORE THE COURT
This matter comes before the court on a motion for summary judgment by the Plaintiff, the Estate of Orin Perry. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The following facts are undisputed.
Orin Perry ("Perry") was born in 1918. He and his wife, who passed away in 1983, had two sons, Edward and Daniel. Beginning in 1986, Perry gave numerous monetary gifts to his loved ones and made significant stock purchases.) In the early 1990s, Perry moved in with Therese Wynne ("Wynne"). Wynne may have helped Perry with his personal and financial papers. Possibly as early as the 1990s, but definitely before 2003, Perry began exhibiting signs of dementia. Starting in December 2000, there was a pattern of unusual withdrawals from one of Perry's investment accounts. On April
I The court notes the Plaintiffs objection to Key Bank's Statement of Material Facts ~ 58 and recognizes, for the purposes ofthis motion, the gifts Perry made from 1986-2002 to his sons in the amounts of $5,000 and $10,000. It is undisputed that Perry purchased $17,465 in stock in 200 I, and $159,065 in stock in 2002.
20, 2001, Perry and Wynne opened a $50,000.00 Certificate of Deposit account
("Account") at Key Bank with Perry's money. The Account was owned by Perry and
Wynne injoint tenancy, earning a per annum interest of2.91 %.2 The Account was
governed by a Deposit Agreement3 and an Account Express Plan ("AEP").4
Key Bank initially used an address listed in both Perry's and Wynne's names for the Account. The 2002 1099-lnt was addressed to both Perry and Wynne and mailed to the listed address, but only Perry's social security number was listed on the statement. The 2003 1099-lnt was again sent to the same address with only Perry's social security number, but this time was only addressed to Wynne. At some point between January 1, 2003 and August 7, 2003 Perry was removed as an owner ofthe Account. Wynne died on July 12,2003. On August 7,2003 Key Bank closed the Account and surrendered the $52,033.52 balance of the Account to the personal representative of Wynne's estate, with no notice mailed to Perry. After Wynne's death Perry seemed incapable of taking care of
2 Perry's federal income taxes were prepared by a C.P.A from 2001-2003. His taxes reflect $637 in interest income from Key Bank in 2002, and $254 in interest in 2003. Perry's C.P.A. also served as his investment counselor during the time of the disputed title change of the Account. 3 Section 9 of the Deposit Agreement states: "Subject to the statement review provisions contained in Section 10 below, if the signature cards or resolutions related to your Account are unavailable for any reason, you agree that we can rely upon the titling contained in our most recent Account Statement for purposes of determining the ownership of the Account." Section 10 states: "You should review and balance your Account statements promptly after you receive them .... If you don't receive an Account statement by the date when you usually receive it, call us at once. You must review your statements to make sure that there are no errors in the Account information .... You must notify us as soon as possible after receiving your Account statement if you believe there is an error or irregularity of any kind, including any unauthorized signature, lack of signature or alteration. You agree that fourteen (14) days after we mailed a statement (or otherwise made it available to you) is a reasonable amount of time for you to review your Account statement and report and errors or other irregularities ...." 4 The AEP states that it is the signature card for all accounts under the plan.
himself, and moved in with his son Daniel Perry.5 Perry died on November 15, 2008 and the Estate of Orin Perry ("Plaintiff') was substituted as Plaintiff.
Key Bank procedures require both owners of an account to sign an "Authorization to Remove Signer from an Individual Account" form ("80-1603X") in order to document and confirm an owner's intentional relinquishment of the Account. After signing the 80

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