Posted on 06/05/2011 3:12:27 PM PDT by PROCON
VERNAL, Utah (AP) - A Utah man has been cited on a charge of disorderly conduct after paying for a disputed medical bill with 2,500 pennies. The Deseret News of Salt Lake City reports Jason West went to Basin Clinic in Vernal on May 27 prepared to dispute an outstanding $25 bill.
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A friend of mine is a chemist. He checked over his daughters doctor bill and meds she had received. Sure enough....he recognized a drug she NEVER received...but was billed at $50 a pop. We all know the hassle that followed.
I often wonder what convoluted problem those people can possibly have in completing a transaction that typically takes me a minute and a half.
I found a brief annotation on what constitutes legal tender at 31 ALR 246 [which I reprieved from West law and is supposedly current as of June, 2004] on what constitutes "legal tender." It points out that with respect to coins as legal tender, "The minor coins of the United States are legal tender for any amount not exceeding 25 cents in any one payment. Act Feb. 12, 1873, Rev. Stat. ' 387, Comp. Stat. ' 6574, 6 Fed.Stat. Anno. 2d. ed. p. 298."Minor coins used to be defined as ones made out of copper or nickel. But since the US government began counterfeiting coins in 1965, I'm no longer certain whether all coins are now "minor coinage," or not.Sidney D. Hemsley
Senior Law Consultant
ML/NJ
Well, that explains it. I guess there are restrictions. You certainly did your homework and you get an A+.
He wasn’t cited for trying to pay the bill in pennies. He was cited because he took the pennies, threw them all over the place, threw a tantrum like a petulant child, (likely with vulgarities) and caused a disruption in the business.
I see a lot of that kind of thinking around here lately. Funny thing is that the people doing it don't realize that they are engaging in the exact type of thing that they are protesting against, only in a weirdly perverse tyranny of the underclass sort of way.
Kinda like when a buncha petulant colonists tossed the crown’s tea in Boston Harbor?
Not quite.
Businesses and private citizens are free to determine what they will accept
for _payment_ of goods or services, e.g. “no checks accepted” “cash only”
“we accept credit cards”, whatever. The seller sets the terms.
A dollar denominated _debt_ is a different matter. They must accept payment in dollars, currently defined as US currency notes and coins.
Not sure about minor coinage though - they might be able to refuse pennies in amounts over $5.00, or at best the coins would need to be rolled. Most likely they will have to accept the pennies though.
What is interesting, if an offer to pay a _debt_ is refused, then the debt is no longer owed, for all intents and purposes. With all that said, it’s generally a bad idea to be a prick in this manner.
Police later issued the 38-year-old West a citation for disorderly conduct.
No legitimate purpose? He's paying his damn bill. Of course it was a legitimate purpose. YOU just didn't like the way he went about it. If they fine him, he should pay THAT in pennies also. And if he's taken to court, he should ask when the penny was no longer considered a valid American currency.
Police abusing the law again.
They claimed I owed $ 250 dollars and I claimed I was over charged.
My lawyer looked at the situation, agreed that I was right, but told me to pay because it would be too expensive to legally dispute it.
My lawyer confirmed that it was legal to pay in pennies.
I had to pre-order 25,000 pennies in bags that contained $50 worth each and weighed {I think about 80 pounds per bag}.
I rented a dolly, built a 4'x 4'x 2' wooden box and waited until 4:45 PM on a Friday night and after dumping the pennies from the bags into the wooden box that was already on the dolly I pushed the whole ensemble into the dealers accounting office to pay my bill.
After many harsh words, the dealer and his assistant started to count the pennies.
They quit after the first five dollars.
He gave me a receipt, marked paid in full and since I had been a very good customer before this happened, I made it my business to relate the story of the service dispute to any of my friends and/or contacts that would inquire as to why I switched my dealership both for business as well as personal cars.
I bought {or leased} 2 -3 cars every year for my business and this dope lost that revenue stream because of a service dispute that could have easily been resolved {but he forgot that I was the customer and his dumb ass brother was the service manager}.
The guy is a prick! Even banks accept only a cetain number of penny coins. It’s been that way forever. I you have lots of pennies, nickels, dimes, or any other coins they have to be rolled!
You’re right. The song is Sundown
Guilty.
He was holding 2 months rent hostage (deposit) and even though the sheriff toss me out the house because HE did not make the payments to the bank. I gave him the last months rent get the cashiers check for the 2 months he was holding (why he could not just take it out of that I do not know)
I sued his butt and got my pennies back plus filing fees.
I had to go to the bank with the sheriff to get my money. I asked for larger bills ;)
(btw 1400 dollars in pennies is not only heavy, but requires trips to several banks to acquire)
My bank won’t take rolled coins. Could be 2 quarters on the outsides and slugs in the middle.
They look at me funny when I pay for something with 100 dollar bills in Oregon... The bank tellers look at me funny when I refuse smaller bills...
Oregon is a goofy state... It is, in some respects, stranger than California...
I usually refuse pennies in change and the retailler often rounds the change up or down to the nearest nickel. Pennies are too high maintenance and I don’t use them. My quarters usually end up the parking meter stash, never at a bank.
My method is to accept the pennies, after they’ve been verified.
If the customer wants to be a jerk, I’ll make him stand there until I have verified them.
No, I don’t let the customer help me count them, because it is me that has to verify them.
I don’t get a lot of change from regulars. :)
Last week, at the local pump-n-munch, a youngster was purchasing an energy drink and a candy bar with mostly pennies.
I was next in line as the flustered clerk was counting out the cash.
I spied what I believed to be an old penny and I bought the penny from the till.
1913...San Fran mint.
Whoa, great catch!
I've been collecting pennies since I was a kid and have most pennies from 1909 to 1980 in my collection, including the hard to find 1909S VDB in fine condition.
If I don't give the collection to my son,I may cash it in upon retirement.
I still look for the older pennies, but most are Lincoln Memorial cents.
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