Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that a bipartisan coalition of 35 states has reached a settlement with Delaware, concluding the outstanding damages phase of an unclaimed property dispute before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the multi-state coalition, determining that unclaimed official checks issued by MoneyGram Payment Systems, Inc. are governed by the Federal Disposition Act. As a result, states including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Wisconsin, and others will receive over $190 million in unclaimed property.
"After the Supreme Court’s decision, states now have a clear process for unclaimed property allowing each jurisdiction to determine how best to handle those funds," stated Attorney General Marshall. "We are grateful that our coalition’s original action in the Supreme Court led to this great result for Alabama and its citizens."
The dispute began when states discovered that Delaware was misapplying federal law by advising MoneyGram to allocate unclaimed official checks to Delaware instead of returning them to the states where they were purchased. The settlement resolves ongoing litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court and ends the remaining damages phase in State of Delaware v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al., and State of Arkansas et al. v. State of Delaware.
Under the settlement terms, Delaware will transfer more than $102 million of property reported by MoneyGram from 2011 to 2017 back to the coalition states based on each monetary instrument's place of purchase. This amount represents approximately half of the report years disputed in litigation.
Additionally, around $89 million deposited by MoneyGram into a litigation escrow account from 2018 to 2022, plus interest earned, will be distributed among all 50 states based on each instrument's place of purchase. The coalition states will receive nearly $55 million plus earned interest from this escrow account.
States will assume custody and responsibility for returning any property received under this settlement or from the escrow account to rightful owners and processing any claims related to this property.
In addition to Alabama, other states involved in taking original action against Delaware include Arkansas, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and Wisconsin. They were joined by Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Michigan Montana Nebraska Nevada North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon South Carolina Utah Virginia Washington West Virginia Wyoming.
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