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evidence can be grouped roughly into five general categories.
The first incorporates documents involved in the opening and
routine administration of the Valdes & Moreno account. For
example, the estate notes the assignment of the eConnect stock
certificate to First Southwest Company, the Valdes & Moreno
customer agreement, the joint account agreement, the margin and
short agreement, the monthly account statements, the sale
confirmation statements, the composite Form 1099, and the check
issued in 2003 by First Southwest Company of the remaining cash
balance in the Valdes & Moreno account. The estate alleges that
these documents are probative in that they reflect the names of
both decedent and Mr. Greene as parties to the account and/or by
their terms afford to decedent and Mr. Greene equal rights and
authority to deal with the account.
5(...continued)
of Texas cases, the majority of which: (1) Construe State law
prior to enactment of the current Texas Probate Code; (2) deal
more generally with gift issues outside the specialized context
of the operative joint account rubric; and/or (3) pertain to
issues of ownership in controversies between parties to joint
accounts, a matter expressly not covered by TPC 438(a) and
related provisions, rather than ownership in controversies vis-a-
vis creditors. The bulk of this material is not germane to the
Court’s disposition here, or at best marginally relevant and
cumulative, and will not be further addressed. As noted by the
Supreme Court of Texas in an opinion construing the related
provision of Tex. Prob. Code Ann. sec. 439 (Vernon 2003),
enactment of the Texas Probate Code served to replace “the
various legal theories” which had been used in analyzing joint
account matters and were “difficult to reconcile”. Stauffer v.
Henderson, 801 S.W.2d 858, 862-863 (Tex. 1990).
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