Lawsuit Seeks to Stop Sale of Unclaimed Property – VOA Story

The State of California is delaying the sale of more than five billion dollars in forgotten and unclaimed assets. A property rights group is suing the state, claiming it has not tried hard enough to find the legal owners of the unclaimed property.

Property owners attorney William Palmer accuses California’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property of theft. He is suing the state for failing to give proper notice to the more than eight million owners whose property is now in the state’s custody.

The items include family heirlooms, rare coins, stocks and bonds and even rare Hollywood memorabilia — property that Palmer says the state now claims as its own. “I don’t know how you reunite people with their property if you don’t even tell them that you’ve taken their property.”

California officials argue the lost items were turned over to the state by insurance companies and banks after three years of inactivity. Robin Johansen, an attorney for the state says California has the right to liquidate the assets. “As all of these statutes provide, and as the U.S. Supreme Court has said, “It’s perfectly constitutional; the state gets the use of it – not the bank.”"

Revenue from the sale of unclaimed property is used to boost the state’s budget. California’s new state controller has imposed a moratorium on the sale of unclaimed property while the state considers ways to improve the search for owners. The state estimates the delay will cost an estimated $127 million in lost revenue.

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Technorati Tags: California, Lawsuit, Property, unclaimed

Tagged with: California • Lawsuit • Property • unclaimed

Filed under: Abandoned Property

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