Contractor Finds $182,000 Cash In Wall

[Old Moparz]

Link:
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdworld/2007/12/he_found_182000_in_her_bathroo.html

I saw this on TV this morning & thought to myself, now there's a contractor that has those same, dirt bag qualities of all those contractors who are responsible for legislation protecting homeowners & consumers from being ripped off. I don't care what his lawyer states about some old law about "discovering treasures" & "finders keepers", it was in someone's friggen' house, not inside some chest buried on an island in the Caribbean.

I hope he does sue though, it'll show his true lack of integrity, & it'll be a great way to promote his contracting business. The dumbass just shot himself in the foot over an amount of money that isn't large enough to have & be considered rich. What the home owner offered to him was very generous since she didn't have to offer him a penny. Now, the only people who will benefit from this cash are the lawyers, not the contractor & the home owner.

If he wanted the money so bad, he should have kept his mouth shut & just left with it.   

[The70RT]

Pretty crazy....why did he even say anything?? Idiot!

[RD]

he's an ass.. a greedy ass at that.. i hope he winds up getting nothing and having to pay for all the court/lawyer fees.  He should have taken the 10%... it would have come out to about 100,000 bux.  geez, some people.

[rav440]

he's an ass.. a greedy ass at that.. i hope he winds up getting nothing and having to pay for all the court/lawyer fees.  He should have taken the 10%... it would have come out to about 100,000 bux.  geez, some people.

right on 

"FINDERS KEEPS" WTF so that basicly leagleizes burgurly  " the door was unlocked and i found all this stuff in the house "

[Old Moparz]

he's an ass.. a greedy ass at that.. i hope he winds up getting nothing and having to pay for all the court/lawyer fees.  He should have taken the 10%... it would have come out to about 100,000 bux.  geez, some people.

right on 

"FINDERS KEEPS" WTF so that basicly leagleizes burgurly  " the door was unlocked and i found all this stuff in the house "

Apparently, the contractor's lawyer is claiming the finding of the money falls under "an obscure, centuries-old legal doctrine called "treasure trove" a common-law finders-keepers provision that they believe gives him top claim to the wealth."  Sounds to me like they're reaching on this one. Suppose it wasn't cash, & it was jewelry that had fallen from a dresser & into an air duct that nobody realized was missing? Just because the contractor finds it doesn't mean he can keep it.

The one, remotely close idea that comes to mind though, is when a contractor signs a contract for a project that includes demolition & disposal of materials. The company I work for does this all the time & the typical thing I always see in the contract is something about how the contractor must take possession & ownership of the materials to be disposed of. But...... money inside a wall is not building materials, so I still say the home owner is the sole owner of the money.

[TruckDriver]

he's an ass.. a greedy ass at that.. i hope he winds up getting nothing and having to pay for all the court/lawyer fees.  He should have taken the 10%... it would have come out to about 100,000 bux.  geez, some people.

I saw this on the news this morning too

[FJMG]

    Yes moparz you hit it on the head "INTEGRITY". A similar situaton happened to me way back, I was doing some finish carpentry in a clients home and we found a very large diamond ring after moving a large dresser out of the way. We returned the ring to the owner at the end of the day when we met for progress reports, turns out he thought it was lost and long gone. The word spread and the work I recieved from that one incident was worth a hundred times that ring ever was.  I'm sure the same would have happened to the above fellow.
     My dad was right, a happy customer will gain you ten in the future, an unhappy one will lose you a hundred.

[Charger_Fan]

I say the homeowner owns the money too.
He should have definitely taken the finder's fee, what a putz.

[Guns N Rotors]

The only ones who will "win" here will be the attorneys. 

[PocketThunder]

The only ones who will "win" here will be the attorneys. 

Starting to hear that more and more.  Makes me almost want to go back to school. 

[The70RT]

I heard on the news tonight that this took place over a year ago. Originally the owner agreed to half then found out the real value and offered 10%. If I lived there I think all the walls would need renovated.

[rav440]

I heard on the news tonight that this took place over a year ago. Originally the owner agreed to half then found out the real value and offered 10%. If I lived there I think all the walls would need renovated.

well that kinda puts a whole differnt paint job on things . by rights the contractor / friend is owed nothing . but if she dumded up  and said " YEA $$$ ill give you half " isnt that a verbel agreement ? 

[BMOTOXSTAR]

Should have been 50/50 from the get go.
If you think about it the contractor was probally giving his friend a deal on her cost of the remodel. 
J

[89MOPAR]

 
I say either the state should claim all the money , and or, give it to the feds, to pay down the defecit

or - If there is any kind of mortgage on the house.... well than the bank who loaned the money is also entitled to their cut...

playing devils advocate here ---

[TK73]

isnt that a verbel agreement ? 

Which is worth every penny of the paper it is agreed to on...

One of the first things I learned working psych facilities:  if it isn't documented, it didn't happen...

[skip68]

I THINK THAT HE WILL LOSE.  The money may not have been hers or put there by her BUT, she owns the house and everything in it.      I can't go in your attic to fix a light and while I'm up there I find a million dollar painting that you didn't know was there and just take it as if it was mine.       I do think that the proper thing to do would be to split it with him or give him a nice finders fee.   Chuck............

[The70RT]

Since lawyers are in volved now they have to split it up even more............

[Vainglory, Esq.]

I know you were all just waiting for me to show up and give you the legal side of things (ha ha, yeah right).

First, the whole "verbal agreement" thing above -- it's absolutely not an enforceable verbal agreement without a lot more.  I'd classify that as an unrelied-upon donative promise, not enforceable as a contract.

Second, the laws of treasure trove are real and actually applied, though somewhat rarely.  The actual state statute that applies will be dispositive, and I don't have a copy of the statutes in front of me, but the general common law rules are very mixed.  First, since prior possessors prevail over everyone except the true owner, the owner of the property may be able to claim that she's in constructive prior possession because she owns the house.  Likewise, many courts have found that employees of the owner of the premises are obligated to turn over found property.  A contractor may not be an employee, but there's also established case law saying that finders who are on the premises for a limited purpose under the direction of the owner are liable to the owner of the premises for any property found.  The treasure trove laws apply to intentionally concealed money, which must be proven with an intent of the concealer to return and reclaim.  States are divided on whether this belongs to the finder or the premises owner, but objects found in private homes most always go to the homeowner.  There is one exception, and that is when the homeowner has not moved in yet and thus cannot claim prior constructive possession.

Interesting, eh?

[DodgeChargerNeeded]

I say the homeowner was very generous offering 10% of the findings. I mean if you buy a car you get everything good and bad with it. If you buy a house you get all the problems as well as all the good things like $182,000 in the wall. I would tell the contractor to take the 10% and be happy or get screwed there is no way he can win this case.

[TK73]

I say the homeowner was very generous offering 10% of the findings. I mean if you buy a car you get everything good and bad with it. If you buy a house you get all the problems as well as all the good things like $182,000 in the wall. I would tell the contractor to take the 10% and be happy or get screwed there is no way he can win this case.

At this point his 10% has gone to the lawyers... SOL now.

[68charger383]

If I bought a car and then a mechanic finds a bag of money hidden under the dash should he get to keep it or get a piece of it. He's an employee or the agent of the owner and has no claim to the money found while working on my property.

[Old Moparz]

If I bought a car and then a mechanic finds a bag of money hidden under the dash should he get to keep it or get a piece of it. He's an employee or the agent of the owner and has no claim to the money found while working on my property.

You'll probably both go to jail for having drug money in your possession, or when the dealer who lost it gets out of jail he'll track the 2 of you down & want it back. 

[BMOTOXSTAR]

Here is an idea, just donate all the $. Solved.