On August 27, 2024, officials from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, California, Texas, and Wisconsin on behalf of a coalition of 30 states, announced they have agreed to a settlement, concluding the landmark unclaimed property case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2023. Under the terms of the settlement, Delaware will transfer to the coalition states more than $100 million that MoneyGram reported to Delaware from 2011 to 2017. In total, Pennsylvania will receive more than $20 million in unclaimed property.
Pennsylvania is the only state that was directly represented by its unclaimed property administrator, Treasurer Stacy Garrity. Kleinbard’s litigation team, composed of Joshua Voss, Matthew Haverstick, Mark Seiberling, and Lorena Ahumada, helped Pennsylvania Treasury obtain this landmark victory.
Originally filed by Pennsylvania in February 2016, the dispute concerned abandoned “official checks,” a form of check payment issued by MoneyGram Payment Systems. Pennsylvania Treasury maintained that Delaware violated the priority rules under the Disposition of Abandoned Money Order and Traveler’s Checks Act by collecting funds from the abandoned checks. On February 28, 2023, the Supreme Court affirmed that the checks fall under the priority rules of the Act and the states where the checks were purchased have the right to take custody of the abandoned sums.
For more information on the decision, click here.
