11th Circuit vacates lower court ruling on Florida Unclaimed Property Registry

Cash is king: What says love more than unclaimed property?

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated a lower court’s ruling dismissing a case where plaintiffs allege that the state of Florida took their property without compensation and put it in the state’s Unclaimed Property Registry.

Lawrence Maron and Aleida Maron, in the case of Alieda Maron, et al v. Chief Financial Officer of Florida, couldn’t get past the pleading stage in the Northern District of Florida with their argument that the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment bans the state from taking their property without compensation and not paying interest on usage thereof.

While the district court asserted the state could take their property and earnings without compensation, the appeals court vacated the ruling.

“Maron learned that she was entitled to unclaimed property that had been delivered to the Department—’premium refunds on individual’ in the amount of $26.24, based on Florida’s online records. Because the Act, as Maron alleged, precludes her from obtaining earnings that accrued on her refund after it entered Florida’s custody, she filed a class action complaint against Jimmy Patronis, the former Chief Financial Officer of the State of Florida, in his official capacity (the “State”). The district court granted her leave to add her husband, Lawrence Maron, as another plaintiff,” the majority opinion notes.

The Appeals Court ruled that in future steps in this controversy, parties should focus on “whether the refund was the Marons’ property … whether the State ‘directly appropriate[d]’ that refund “for its own use” and “if the State appropriated the Marons’ private property for the State’s own use, whether the Act fails to provide just compensation.”

The ruling comes as Florida has no CFO. Patronis is in Congress, and Gov. Ron DeSantis is waiting until a budget is signed to appoint a replacement, who may be Sen. Blaise Ingoglia.