Slog - Comments on Windfall Wall http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall Here's where the story ends: CLEVELAND – A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication. The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece. It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties. And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne — the wealthy businessman who stashed the... Copyright 2008 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:55:56 -0800 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:34:36 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Bellevue Ave isnt this what arbitrators are for?

]]> Bellevue Ave http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200725 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200725 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:18:26 -0800 Comment by Greg Life imitates games theory:

http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001341.html

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200773 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200773 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:00:25 -0800 Comment by Mike I'm thinking that there must be more to this story. Because given the facts as stated, this is a pretty clear cut case. The money belongs to the owner of the building in which it was found, plain and simple. It doesn't matter that a contractor found it.

I have a law degree, though I don't practice as an attorney (in part because I hate litigation). And this is one of the first things you learn in a first-year property course.

The money should no sooner be the contractors than if the contractor found a shoebox under the homeowner's bed with a thousand dollars in it, under the law at least.

All that said, you're right in a way that litigation is almost never worth it. I've worked on cases in the past where the litigants have spend far, far more on litigation then they would ever benefit had they won their case. It's pointless and sad. Frankly, attorneys shouldn't be party to it. But of course, attorneys are the real winners in the end, so they have little motivation to stop it.

]]> Mike http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200938 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200938 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:35:22 -0800 Comment by jw "And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne...will each get a mere fraction of the find."

So, we're dividing it at least 23 different ways, and we have to point out that EACH one gets a MERE FRACTION..?

]]> jw http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200948 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1200948 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:40:30 -0800 Comment by d "a bank recently foreclosed on ONE of her properties"????
boo hoo!

]]> d http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201039 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201039 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:19:37 -0800 Comment by Dougsf I don't understand why a contractor thinks he's entitled to the find at all.

]]> Dougsf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201194 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201194 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:01:12 -0800 Comment by sam This wouldn't even be an issue if the stupid contractor would have just quietly pocketed the money and did a bang up job on the work requested...

]]> sam http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201240 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/windfall_wall#c1201240 Money Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:34:36 -0800