PA Treasury Lawsuit Seeking $10 Million in Unclaimed Funds from Delaware Moves to U.S. Supreme Court
Harrisburg, PA – (RealEstateRama) — Pennsylvania today agreed that the U.S. Supreme Court should assume original jurisdiction in the state’s efforts to recover more than $10 million in unclaimed property funds that were wrongly submitted to the state of Delaware over 10 years.
In February 2016, 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 under federal and Pennsylvania law, when a money order issued by MoneyGram is not cashed after the requisite time period, any funds associated with the uncashed money order becomes unclaimed property and should be remitted to the state where the money order was purchased. Instead, MoneyGram has been submitting the unclaimed money to Delaware where it is incorporated.
The state of Wisconsin subsequently filed a similar lawsuit and Delaware countersued and sought to have the dispute moved to the Supreme Court. Last week 21 other states jointly filed a lawsuit identical to Pennsylvania’s seeking to have Delaware return unclaimed money to each of them as well.
“Given that this is a dispute between states, the U.S. Supreme Court is an appropriate venue and we look forward to arguing the merits of our case. We feel strongly that this is money that belongs to Pennsylvania and are pleased to lead this effort that nearly two dozen other states have now joined.”
Pennsylvania Treasurer, Timothy Reese
Click here to view the legal filing.
Media contact: Scott Sloat, 717-695-1789 or 
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The Pennsylvania Treasury is an independent department of state government led by the state treasurer, who is elected every four years. The department’s primary duty is to safeguard and manage the state’s public funds. It invests state money to generate income on behalf of the citizens of Pennsylvania, reviews and processes payments for state government agencies, and serves as custodian of more than $100 billion in state funds. Key Treasury programs include Unclaimed Property, PA 529 College Savings Program and the Board of Finance and Revenue.
