Alston & Bird Tax Blog

Litigation

Predicting the Possible “Perfect Storm” of Unclaimed Property Trends in 2018

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Our Unclaimed Property Group looks ahead to 2018’s perfect storm of holder- and state-initiated litigation and more. Litigation – what happened and what’s next Adopting the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act The ABA’s Model Unclaimed Property Act Delaware’s VDA program Read the full advisory here. [...]Read more

Plains All American Case Dismissed – Federal Court Determines Holder Must Develop Factual Record Before Challenging Kelmar Unclaimed Property Audit

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On August 16, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted Kelmar’s and Delaware’s motions to dismiss in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., v. Cook, et al.[1]  The court determined that the Plaintiff (1) lacked standing to sue Kelmar, (2) had not demonstrated ripeness of declaratory relief against Delaware for any of its claims, except equal protection, and (3) failed to state a cause of action regarding its equal protection claim. Background In 2014, Delaware, through its third-party auditor, Kelmar, initiated an unclaimed property audit of Plains All American [...]Read more

State-vs.-State Unclaimed Property Dispute May be Heading to the Supreme Court

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In March, we issued an advisory highlighting a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Treasury Department against the State of Delaware in federal district court seeking to recover uncashed official checks escheated to Delaware by MoneyGram.  (http://www.alston.com/advisories/money-gram/).  Essentially, the dispute centers upon whether MoneyGram's official checks were subject to the Federal Disposition Act, in which case they would have been reportable to the state(s) in which they were issued rather than Delaware, the state of MoneyGram's domicile.  In our prior advisory, we pointed out that [...]Read more