In Free v. Bland, 369 U.S. 663, 8 L. Ed. 2d 180, 82 S. Ct. 1089 (1962), a husband and wife purchased United States savings bonds with community funds. The bonds would have been community property under Texas law, but a federal treasury regulation provided that when one co-owner died, the other would become the "'sole and absolute owner.'" Id. at 665. Upon the death of the wife, her son from a prior marriage sued the surviving husband for an accounting and obtained a judgment for one-half the value of the bonds. The United States Supreme Court held that the federal regulations preempted Texas community property law. Id. at 670. It further held that the son could not circumvent that preemption by obtaining a judgment for one-half the value of the bonds rather than title to a one-half interest in the bonds themselves: Notwithstanding this provision, the State awarded full title to the co-owner but required him to account for half of the value of the bonds to the decedent's estate. Viewed realistically, the State has rendered the award of title by the federal regulations meaningless. . . . If the State can frustrate the parties' attempt to use the bonds' survivorship provision through the simple expedient of requiring the survivor to reimburse the estate of the deceased co-owner as a matter of law, the State has interfered directly with a legitimate exercise of the power of the Federal Government to borrow money. Id. at 669.