The client named Handy, now 84, as trustee on the passbook account - a type of account that gave way to the present-day savings account.

Not long after, the client died in a plane crash.

Rummaging through the junk drawer of an office credenza more than 32 years later, Handy found the passbook. Inside, the book detailed five deposits between July and September 1971, but didn't note any withdrawals, according to documents filed Thursday by the Utah Court of Appeals.

Handy unsuccessfully attempted to withdraw from the account at the United States National Bank of Oregon. But because the account was virtually inactive for three decades and Handy couldn't prove he owned the account, bank officials said he was not entitled to the money, court documents state.

Undeterred, Handy sued the bank in 2nd District Court, where an expert testified that with compounded interest, the account would contain between $536,000 and $832,000 if there had not been any withdrawals over three decades, court documents state.

Following trial, a District Court judge sided with the bank. On Thursday, the Utah Court of Appeals agreed.

"In the case before us, there is absolutely no evidence establishing Handy as the owner of the account, even though his name is the only name on the passbook," Appellate Judge Gregory K. Orme wrote in the court decision.

During trial, Handy acknowledged that he personally didn't open the account or sign the required signature card proving ownership. He testified that he never received any money, statements or any correspondence from the bank when the passbook account was converted into statement savings account.

Handy also testified that "this was the first time that [he] ever saw the passbook" and that its discovery was "an absolute complete mystery" to him.

"Nonetheless, Handy failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he had any claim on the passbook account," Orme wrote.

ngonzalez@sltrib.com