FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: Clint Blaes |
Treasurer Steven Johnson: Kansas
expected to receive more than $1.78 million in unclaimed property following
Supreme Court decision in MoneyGram case
TOPEKA –
(February 28, 2023) – Kansans who purchased certain financial instruments from
MoneyGram that were never cashed will soon be able to claim those through the
Kansas unclaimed property program, following a ruling today by the U.S. Supreme
Court, Kansas State Treasurer Steven Johnson said.
In a
unanimous opinion issued today by Justice Ketanji
Brown Jackson, the Court found that “Agent Checks” and “Teller’s Checks” issued
by MoneyGram fall under the federal Disposition of Abandoned Money Orders and
Traveler’s Checks Act, and when left unclaimed must be remitted to the unclaimed
property systems of the state in which they are purchased. MoneyGram and the
State of Delaware had argued that these instruments did not fall under that
act, and the company had been remitting the unclaimed payments to the State of
Delaware, where it is incorporated.
“This
ruling is a win for Kansans whose unclaimed checks were being improperly held
in the Delaware unclaimed property system,” Johnson said. “We will work to
ensure this unclaimed property is promptly transferred to the State of Kansas
and begin the work of returning that money to Kansans.”
Kansas was
one of more than 20 states that filed the original action case against the
State of Delaware in 2016 seeking the return of the funds. The case was
originally filed by former Attorney General Derek Schmidt with the support of
former State Treasurer Ron Estes. The attorney general’s office represented
Kansas in the briefing on the case.
“This is a
win for Kansans in two ways,” Kansas Solicitor General Anthony Powell said.
“First, it vindicates the state treasurer’s unclaimed property program. And
more importantly, it makes it easier for Kansans to claim their money in
certain instances.”
A 2016
estimate determined that Delaware was holding more than $1.78 million in
uncashed MoneyGram checks that were purchased in Kansas. The Court has
ordered the case back to a Special Master to implement its ruling, including determining
the exact amounts owed to each state.
The U.S.
Supreme Court’s opinion is available at https://bit.ly/3IXJvkP.
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