Estate of Sarah H. Newman, Deceased, Mark M. Newman, Co-Executor and Minna N. Nathanson, Co-Executor - Page 10

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          payment order made by the customer would be effective for 6                 
          months.  D.C. Code Ann. sec. 28:4-403(2) (1981).  Although                  
          testimony was presented which portrays decedent as "bedridden"              
          prior to her death, there is no evidence that she had absolutely            
          no access to a telephone.  Further, because Mark was also a                 
          customer6 on the account in question, he could have ordered CFB             
          to stop payment at decedent's request.                                      
               Petitioner does not direct us to, nor have we found, any               
          State that recognizes delivery of a check to be a completed gift            
          of the underlying funds.  See 38A C.J.S., Gifts, sec. 56 (1996)             
          ("The gift of the donor's own check is but the promise of a gift            
          and does not amount to a completed gift until payment or                    
          acceptance by the drawee.").  Furthermore, mere possession of a             
          power to revoke, not the ability to exercise it, is controlling.            
          Estate of Alperstein v. Commissioner, 71 T.C. 351, 353-354                  
          (1978), affd. 613 F.2d 1213 (2d Cir. 1979).  Accordingly, we find           
          that decedent possessed the power to revoke the checks until                
          accepted or paid by CFB.  Because CFB did not accept or pay the             
          checks until after decedent's death, they were not completed                
          gifts under the law of the District of Columbia.                            
               Nevertheless, petitioner argues that under the relation-back           
          doctrine, the payment of checks by the drawee relates back to the           

               6D.C. Code Ann. sec. 28:4-104(1)(e) (1981), defines                    
          "customer" to mean "any person having an account with a bank or             
          for whom a bank has agreed to collect items and includes a bank             
          carrying an account with another bank".  (Emphasis added.)                  




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