Conditional Gift

A mother sent a handwritten letter to her son thanking him for investing money for her, telling him that “should anything happen to me,” he was to keep the “balance,” and stating that she “[w]ill check with you after October 7th” on which date she was to, and did, return from a cruise.

In Porter v. Black Warrior Farms, L.L.C., No. 1050566, 2006 WL 3692432 (Ala. Dec. 15, 2006), the court required the son to return the invested funds to his mother’s estate, holding that the letter was neither an instrument of gift nor a codicil to her will because its effect was conditioned on her not returning from the cruise.