Posted on 09/17/2009 8:11:26 AM PDT by JoeProBono
INDIANAPOLIS – A woman who worked catering events for the University of Notre Dame says it was her lucky day when the school tipped her $29,000 in her check. But now the university is suing to get back the money she says she's already spent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
School’s fought. I hope she gets to keep it.
It’d be cool if she would give some of the $$ to Priests for Life...just sayin’!!
She’s a dope for spending, she knew it was mistake, any thinkng person would, I hope the repo and get every dime back ...
Yep!
Wha?
They’re the ones who typed out the check for that amount and when she called them to see if it was a mistake, they wouldn’t contact her back.
True. If she knew it was a mistake, they can nail her for theft. It’s like finding a bag of money at work.
*fought=fault*
She notified them of the overpayment. They did nothing.
I think she knew it wasn’t her money. You know that too.
If she did, indeed, contact the school multiple times about this and they didn’t do anything till months later, then they should just suck it up. It’s their own fault.
Of course she did. Of course I do. But I have no sympathy for “Notre Hussein”.
I am not too sympathetic towards ND, after the Obama speech fiasco, but the university is right on this one.
If there was some way the woman could reasonbly believe the extra $29,000 was a “tip”, I’d probably take her side.
But given that the actual amount was $29.87. it should have been rather obvious to her that someone typed a “3” instead of “.”.
I’m sure, if she made the same mistake, she’d have no problem with the other party keeping her money. /sarc
Keeping the extra money is clearly unethical and immoral, and borders on criminal, IMHO.
I agree. Just use the “if it seems too good to be true, it usually is” test and you will be safe.
The payments were usually the result of the bank missing a stop payment on a check or else typing or processing errors like the one in this story. The people would come up with all kinds of wild stories about how they never ever thought the money was not theirs. I don't remember ever losing one of these cases.
That said, the money was usually long gone. Since the state where I was then practicing did not allow wage garnishment, it was good luck trying to collect on the judgment unless there was a house or some other asset on which to place a lien.
agreed. Isn't there some sort of a banking law regarding this?
Speaking for myself, it would depend on how long my conscience could stand it.
Charitable institution screw up? Likely I'd never spend the money (maybe donate it back to them...).
Employer/Bank/Retailer/Credit Card Screw up? Six Months-ish, depending on the amount, and how polite they were to me when I notified them of the mistake....
The IRS? "Money? What money?"
clearly I’ve watched the Acorn videos too many times. I read the headline as Notre Dame sues SEX-worker over $29,000 tip. LOL
We had $42,000 deposited into our checking account by mistake. Needless to say, about had a heart attack in the drive thru. I pulled around to the front of the bank and went in with the deposit slip and went through our account with the clerk. There was no way I was leaving until they fixed it. And an embarrassed clerk in the room found out that she had put it in the wrong account. No harm, no foul. I just didn’t want to have to give it back later hahaha. And I’m pretty sure the rightful owner was happy too. If it isn’t yours, don’t keep it.
So you think it’s OK to steal from groups you don’t like? That’s soooooooo liberal.
Yep. If it isn’t yours, don’t pretend that it is, and always assume that they are going to track it down eventually.
As you did, save the trouble and give it right back.
LOL - the first ten or twenty times you might have wondered if in fact some of the stories were true - after that I'm sure you just rolled your eyes in wonder about how people could tell such bold faced lies.
You "did good" - glad you're one of us...
This goes down to the phone records. If she can produce phone records showing she called their office three times after the check was issued, I think she has a shot at winning. If not, she will be paying it back over the next several years.
“I am not too sympathetic towards ND, after the Obama speech fiasco, but the university is right on this one.
If there was some way the woman could reasonbly believe the extra $29,000 was a “tip”, I’d probably take her side.
But given that the actual amount was $29.87. it should have been rather obvious to her that someone typed a “3” instead of “.”.
I’m sure, if she made the same mistake, she’d have no problem with the other party keeping her money. /sarc
Keeping the extra money is clearly unethical and immoral, and borders on criminal, IMHO.”
Exactly.
I’ll take a different tack on this story. My business once had a check for $16,000 sent to us by a very large customer by accident at Christmas time. My accountant told me to deposit the check immediately and not to spend it. He told me to wait until our customer asked for it back, which they did in about two weeks at which time I returned it. It sure made my account balances look good over the holidays!
Of course she should give it back. What idiot would assume that they were being given a “tip” of $29,000?
YOu have no right to money just because someone accidentally sent you a check.
But this is what happens in a culture of entitlement. Not only would people no longer turn in money they found in a bag on the street, they will argue that if you DID turn it in you are stupid.
SOmething for Nothing — it’s the new American Way.
Imagine if the story was reversed, and that she had written a check to someone but forgotten the decimal point, so instead of, say “$123.45”, she wrote “$12,345”.
Do you think she’d be saying “Well, I sent the check, so I guess it’s their money now”.
She claims she notified them, but she never talked to anybody, and never heard back.
That’s like when you stand in the next room, and whisper to your parents “can I go out to a party”, and if they don’t respond, you say “well, I asked”.
“Imagine if the story was reversed, and that she had written a check to someone but forgotten the decimal point, so instead of, say “$123.45”, she wrote “$12,345”.”
IF you have ever written a check you’d know that the amount is also written out in text, so your example could not possibly happen by accident.
I take it you’ve never dealt with a bureaucracy.
Even if she tried to return it and failed, she should have know they would come after $29,000 eventually.
She should have put it into an intrest bearing account. Then when they finally figured out their mistake, she could give the $29,000 back to them.
The intrest earned on the $29,000 would be hers though.
Your picture and lousy attempt at humor was uncalled for and inappropriate for the FR... and no I’m not a fuddy duddy with no sense of humor. I just don’t appreciate attempts at humor that attack my faith.
I wasn't attacking your church, just the pedophiles that work there.
In this story, we have two contradictory statements.
The university claims that the woman never called them. They claim the university caught the error, and that when they asked her in May (the check was April) to return the money, she refused.
The woman claims that she called the university multiple times, that they never returned her call, and that she never talked to them.
Which is more likely to be true? Well, the university filed a lawsuit. Being a business, they would likely have been expected to keep records of contact with the woman. So if they say they actually spoke with her, and that they discovered the problem back in april-may, they will be expected to present evidence at trial.
And since they know that, it seems likely that they HAVE evidence, or else they wouldn’t have given the information.
The woman? she says she called them but never spoke with them. Phone records? all local calls, probably, so she doesn’t have a bill that shows she called them. She would probably argue she “left messages on their machine” since she says she never spoke with them.
Her story doesn’t risk anything for her, because she wouldn’t be expected to provide evidence that she called. She can say that without fear someone will “prove her wrong”, because how would they PROVE that they did NOT have a message on their machine?
It’s not stealing; they gave it to her. She tried to help them rectify their mistakes, but they ignored her.
How can they prove they didnt intend to pay her that money?
Expensive lesson for the University, it will cost them more in legal fees than its worth.
If you believe what she said. THey say she didn’t call them, they called her, and she refused to return the money.
As tempting as it is (and I admit it screams for a slapdown), the best thing to do with self-righteous twits like this is to just ignore them.
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