The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Pennsylvania Treasury’s lawsuit seeking to recover more than $10 million in unclaimed property funds that were submitted to the state of Delaware over a 10-year period.
“I am pleased the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider our case. Under both state and federal law, the money in question legally belongs to Pennsylvania and should remain in Pennsylvania,” said Pennsylvania Treasurer Timothy Reese. “We look forward to presenting our argument to the court.”
The decision to hear the case is bad news for Delaware, which claims funds from companies incorporated in the state and has made aggressive moves over the years to claim the money and faces a structural budget gap. According to one report, the gap will worsen in coming years, minus spending cuts or tax and fee increases.
Click here for a link to previous stories on unclaimed property
Delaware earlier agreed to a settlement with a company over its assessment of unclaimed property.
In February, Pennsylvania Treasury filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against Delaware and MoneyGram, Inc. The lawsuit argued that when a money order issued by MoneyGram is not cashed after a set period, any funds associated with the uncashed money order becomes the unclaimed property and should be remitted to the state where the money order was purchased. MoneyGram has been submitting the unclaimed money to Delaware, the state where it is incorporated.
Following a similar lawsuit filed by Wisconsin, Delaware countersued and sought to have the dispute moved to the Supreme Court. Treasury agreed that the Supreme Court should assume original jurisdiction and nearly two dozen other states have since joined to file a lawsuit identical to Pennsylvania’s. The Supreme Court has consolidated all the cases and provided 30 days for the parties to file responses.
