§ 3-311. Marriage relationship not to affect construction of instruments and transactions involving personal property. 1. Where an instrument or transaction creating or transferring an interest in personal property would create a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common in persons not husband and wife, it shall create a joint tenancy or a tenancy in common, as the case may be, in persons who are husband and wife.

Terms Used In N.Y. General Obligations Law 3-311

  • Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
  • Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent

2. An instrument or transaction which does not create a right of survivorship in personal property between persons who are not husband and wife shall not create a right of survivorship in personal property between persons who are husband and wife.

3. This section applies without regard to the identity of the person who makes the transfer or at whose instance it is had, or from whom the consideration for the instrument or transaction proceeds.

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