Special Master Reverses Course In High Stakes MoneyGram Feud

In a stunning about face, the special master appointed in the high stakes U.S. Supreme Court battle pitting Delaware against thirty other states over the escheat of hundreds of millions in dormant, unclaimed MoneyGram "teller" checks, advised the parties late last week that he no longer believes that those funds are subject to the Federal Disposition of Abandoned Money Orders and Traveler's Check Act. Following oral argument in the Supreme Court in Delaware v. Pennsylvania on October 3, 2022, special master Judge Pierre Leval of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, said that after reading the argument and reviewing the parties' prior written submissions, he no longer subscribes to recommendations made in a July 2021 report to the Court that teller checks should escheat to the states of purchase under the act, and would advise the Court that he no longer believes that teller checks are subject to the act. While not binding on the Court, the recommendation, if accepted,