No Christmas cheer

[Jon]

Another curly legal question.

Our work have a bank account into which we put money from scrap metal for our yearly Christmas party. The account is a joint account, under 2 former employees names. One was retrenched last month and the other died May last year. Everyone forgot to close the account and this year has been fairly good with about $13k in the kitty. Now the account holder who passed away has his estate in dispute due to issues with his other incomes(taxi's). So basically the people left in the company are trying to claim what is morally theirs, but from what I can see, we dont have a leg to stand on.
Our main issue is that the sole survivor of the account has moved on in unpleasant circumstances, and once the estate is settled then she will have sole access to our scrap money, hence no Christmas cheer.

So my question to the bankers/legals here is- Can we place a caveat on the account and if so what evidence would we need to do so?
Are there any other options without negotiating directly with her?
Discussion with the executors of the estate is not viable due to the dispute and a conflict of interests within said dispute.
The last statement was at 30/9/08 and all the funds were there at that time.
Thanks

 

[pyrop]

Seek legal advise I say...

Really it will depend how the account has been setup >

Type 1 > john smith & mary blogs savings account > basically you have little right to the money.

Type 2 > john smith & mary blogs in trust for "your work place social club" > you have a reasonable claim to the money.

In both cases you will need to see a solicitor & both parties will need to be informed of your work place's intentions to claim the said money.
Don't delay either as the ex employee may clear the account at any time if not already.

Good luck but I doubt you will have access to it by this xmas sorry