Sisters Miriam and Sarah Jenkins appeal from the trial court’s denial of their motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict following a jury trial. The issue tried by the jury was ownership of bank accounts which had been opened by Frances Jenkins, the deceased mother of Miriam, Sarah, and their six siblings. The accounts were opened jointly with Miriam Wachovia Bank in Augusta and Sarah First State Bank in Wrens with right of survivorship. Following Frances Jenkins’ death, five of the remaining children contended that the accounts were subject to a constructive trust in favor of the estate.1 E. A. Jenkins, husband of Frances and father of the eight children, died intestate in 1969, leaving his wife and eight children as heirs to his estate, including extensive real property holdings.2 Shortly after Mr. Jenkins’ death in 1969, Frances Jenkins opened a joint checking account at First State Bank in Wrens with her daughter Sarah, who lived with her parents until their deaths. According to Sarah, the reason her mother put her on that account was so that, if Frances Jenkins became ill or was unavailable, Sarah could pay her bills. Miriam Jenkins also lived with her parents or mother, along with Sarah and Lois Ann, the youngest child, until Lois Ann moved out in 1989, and Miriam moved into her own home in 1994. All three of these daughters worked in Augusta and paid rent to their parents or mother while living with them. Maurice, Miriam’s twin brother, also lived with their mother. Maurice ran a store for his mother in Wrens and did handyman work around the house instead of paying rent. Maurice, Miriam, and Sarah provided their mother with transportation and, although Frances Jenkins provided the money, Sarah did the grocery shopping for them. After Lois, Maurice, and Miriam moved out, Sarah was solely responsible for transporting and caring for her mother’s needs.
In 1999, condemnation proceedings were begun by DOT on a portion of the real property in the E. A. Jenkins estate, including the family homeplace in which Frances Jenkins lived with Sarah. In December 1999, Frances Jenkins and Sarah Jenkins moved into Miriam Jenkins’ home and both paid rent to Miriam. Because DOT would only issue one payment to be made electronically, each of the children except Howard Jenkins and Lois Ann Jenkins signed quitclaim deeds to Frances Jenkins for their portion of the property taken by condemnation.3 Howard and Lois each executed a document authorizing DOT to pay in full to Frances Jenkins the price of the condemned property. None of these deeds or affidavits contained any restrictive language on the use to be made by Frances Jenkins of the proceeds from the condemnation. On November 17, 1999, Howard and Joe Jenkins signed a document setting out their agreement that the condemnation proceeds were to be used only to build a house for Frances Jenkins and that, at the time of her death, the house would be deeded to the Jenkins estate and she would agree to give up her interest in the remaining land in the E. A. Jenkins estate. There is nothing to indicate that Frances Jenkins or the remaining siblings ever agreed to these terms. Further, Joe Jenkins signed his quitclaim deed thereafter on December 8, 1999, and Howard signed his affidavit on December 9, 1999.
