Bank Error in Your Favor: Collect $29,000

In Monopoly, if you land on a "Chance" square and draw the card mentioned in the post title, you get $200, which is enough money to buy up New York Avenue.

These days, $200 won't buy you a whole street, in Atlantic City or otherwise. Nor, as it turns out, will $29,000. These days, someone is bound to notice the bank error and come after you to get the money back.

Which is exactly what has happened to someone in Indiana.

It would appear that someone typed a "3" instead of a decimal point, resulting in the worker being paid $29,387 instead of $29.87.

Notre Dame, the employer, claims the worker did not contact them about the money, and spent it knowing it did not lawfully belong to her. Fair enough. It is either true that
a) The worker did not contact them or
b) The worker did contact them, but the message did not get through.
It is most definitely inconceivable that
c) The message got through to the relevant department and was promptly ignored.

According to the school, the school demanded its money back in May after discovering the mistake, and the employee refused.
The defendant in the case claims that she contacted the school in April but did not hear back until June. Regardless of the cirucmstances, it is clear that one side is not telling the truth. Did the school contact the employee in May, or in June?

This is a rather important factor in assessing whether one side is being honest or not. However, it is irrelevant to the underlying problem behind this issue.

Let's get things straight, from the perspective of the worker.

In April, she receives $29,000 extra on her paycheck. She then allegedly called the catering department (which I imagine doesn't handle payroll, but it's where she worked so I guess it's reasonable) three times with no response. Let us, for a moment, disregard that at this point she should have tried contacting the accounting department. In June, she allegedly gets a threatening phone call from the school, demanding the money back. At this point, the worker had spent all of the money on a new car and some bills.

So let me get this clear, she notified the school saying, "you gave me $29,000 by mistake" three times, and then figured no one would ever find out about it?

Erm, right. That's a bit like sending a death threat to a police station with all of the personal information necessary to identify you as a potential murderer and not expecting them to be at your door in a couple of days.

It gets worse. According to court papers, the defendant says, "If this was a mistake it was their mistake... Now I am paying for their mistake."

Well, that's a bit... unapologetic, to say the least. Yes, the school made a mistake. However, unlawfully obtaining something does not make the item yours, regardless of whose fault it may be. I mean, the least she could say is, "I'm really sorry, can I sell the new car I bought with your money and pay you back whatever I can?" Catholics are supposed to be understanding people right? I'm sure Notre Dame would have had a more positive view of this worker if she had said that instead of "No, it's all your fault and I'm going to be the victim in this case and I'm not going to give you your money back."

I don't like the sue-happy culture of America, but some people...