Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property are categories of the

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

which deals with

personal property property is property that is movable. In common law systems, personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In civil law systems, personal property is often called movable property or movables—any property that can be moved fr ...

or chattel which has left the possession of its rightful owner without having directly entered the possession of another person. Property can be considered lost, mislaid or abandoned depending on the circumstances under which it is found by the next party who obtains its possession. There is an old saying that ''

possession is nine-tenths of the law Possession is nine-tenths of the law is an expression meaning that ownership is easier to maintain if one has possession of something, or difficult to enforce if one does not. The expression is also stated as "possession is ten points of the law", ...

'', perhaps dating back centuries. This means that in most cases, the possessor of a piece of property is its rightful owner without evidence to the contrary. More colloquially, this may be called

finders, keepers Finders, keepers, sometimes extended as the children's rhyme finders, keepers; losers, weepers, is an English adage with the premise that when something is unowned or abandoned, whoever finds it first can claim it for themself permanently. The ph ...

. The contradiction to this principle is

theft by finding Theft by finding occurs when someone chances upon an object which seems abandoned and takes possession of the object but fails to take steps to establish whether the object is genuinely abandoned and not merely lost or unattended. In some jurisdi ...

, which may occur if

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

occurs after finding someone else's property. The rights of a finder of such property are determined in part by the status in which it is found. Because these classifications have developed under the common law of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, they turn on nuanced distinctions. The general rule attaching to the three types of property may be summarized as: ''A finder of property acquires no rights in mislaid property, is entitled to possession of lost property against everyone except the true owner, and is entitled to keep abandoned property.'' This rule varies by jurisdiction.

Jesse Dukeminier Jesse Dukeminier (August 12, 1925 – April 20, 2003) was a professor of law for 40 years at the University of California, Los Angeles, and authored or co-authored a significant number of articles and textbooks in the areas of property law, wills, ...

and James E. Krier, ''Property, Fifth Edition'', Aspen Law & Business (New York, 2002), p. 120.

Lost property

Property is generally deemed to have been lost if it is found in a place where the true owner likely did not intend to set it down, and where it is not likely to be found by the true owner. At common law, the finder of a lost item could claim the right to possess the item against any person except the true owner or any previous possessors. The underlying policy goals to these distinctions are to (hopefully) see that the property is returned to its true original owner, or "title owner". Most jurisdictions have now enacted

statute A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

s requiring that the finder of lost property turn it in to the proper authorities; if the true owner does not arrive to claim the property within a certain period of time (this is defined by the Torts Act 1977 as 3 months from the date of finding), the property is returned to the finder as his own, or is disposed of. In

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, many public businesses have a dedicated Lost Property Office (LPO), which in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

would be called a

lost and found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...

, where lost property can be reported and reclaimed free of charge. Many exceptions may be applied at common law to the rule that the first finder of lost property has a superior claim of right over any other person except the previous owner. For example, a

trespass Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person, trespass to chattels, and trespass to land. Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding ...

er's claim to lost property which he finds while trespassing is generally inferior to the claim of the respective landowner. As a corollary to this exception, a landowner has superior claim over a find made within the non-public areas of his property, so if a customer finds lost property in the public area of a store, the customer has superior claim to the lost property over that of the store-owner, but if the customer finds the lost property in the non-public area of that store, such as an area marked "Employees Only", the store-owner will have superior claim, as the customer was trespassing when he found it. The status of finders as employees or

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a ...

of the landowner complicates matters, because employees and tenants have legitimate access to non-public areas of a landowner's property that others would not, without trespassing. Employees and tenants, however, still usually lose superior claim over lost property to their employers or landlords if the property is found within the scope of their employment, or outside the actual leased area, respectively. For example, if the lost property is found by a tenant inside the walls of his leasehold, or by an employee embedded within the soil of an estate owned by his employer, the landowner (as employer or landlord) of the property where it was found usually has a superior claim of right over that of the finder. However, this is not always the case, as a long-term tenant who finds lost property within the leased area of his leasehold may have a superior claim over that of his landlord (especially if the landlord has never been to the property). While employers usually have a superior claim over lost property found by their employees, exceptions to this exist as well, as modern law sometimes grants the employee superior claim if turning over lost property to his employer is not part of his job description (such as if the employee is an interior decorator).

Animals

Since

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s are mobile and are thus capable of becoming lost on their own, the loss of property that is a valuable animal has its own set of rules. A valuable animal that becomes lost usually does so by leaving its owner's real property and arriving on another property owner's land; such an animal is legally termed an

estray Estray, in law, is any domestic animal found wandering at large or lost, particularly if the owner is unknown. In most cases this includes domesticated animals and not pets. Under early English common law, estrays were forfeited to the king or lor ...

. Estrays are normally confined to domesticated animals, like

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

, and not wild animals. Since common pets are not considered valuable animals,

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

s and

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s are never considered estrays. In many jurisdictions of the U.S., a person who discovers an estray will be required to file an affidavit of estray, along with its description, and potentially impound that animal in some way for a period of time. If the estray is branded, the owner can often be identified immediately. The owner of the estray will generally have a limited time frame in which to reclaim his property after a notice of estray is published, but on the expiration of such time another person or entity will be designated the new title owner of the property. Fees for impounding the estray will often accumulate which the property owner will be responsible for paying. The status of a stray

domestic animal This page gives a list of domesticated animals, also including a list of animals which are or may be currently undergoing the process of domestication and animals that have an extensive relationship with humans beyond simple predation. This includ ...

(for example, a

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

or a free-ranging dog) is highly dependent on local jurisdictions. Given the significant number of feral dogs and cats, the finder of a lost dog or cat may have little or no restrictions to claiming the animal as his own property.

Slaves

Like animals,

fugitive slaves in the United States In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...

(runaway slaves) were a type of property that was capable of relocating to other places. Slave owners depended on others to identify and return their property; some slaves would be branded if a slave was known to run away. Numerous laws in the U.S., like the Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution of 1789, the

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the US Constitution ( Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3), which was later superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, and to also gi ...

, and the

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 The Fugitive Slave Act or Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern interests in slavery and Northern Free-Soilers. The Act was one of the most co ...

all stipulated that the slaves be captured and returned to their owner. These laws, now superseded by Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 1865, were demanded by the Southern States of the U.S. but were actively opposed in most Northern states. Activists against slavery and the fugitive slave laws, such as members of the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

, routinely violated the laws and refused to return slaves to their owners. Of the 5 laws agreed upon in the

Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Ame ...

, the fugitive slave laws were by far the most contentious, although many of the issues were split along regional lines with Northerners and Southerners diametrically opposed. In

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...

's 1852 novel ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U. ...

'', the issue of runaway slaves was a central theme. These property and fugitive slave issues, along with other events related to slavery, would propel the U.S. into

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Unclaimed property

Unclaimed property laws in the United States provide for two reporting periods each year whereby unclaimed bank accounts, stocks, insurance proceeds, utility deposits, un-cashed checks and other forms of "personal property" are reported first to the individual state's Unclaimed Property Office, then published in a local newspaper and then finally the property is turned over to the State for safe keeping until its rightful owner makes a claim. The states sponsor a free public site that reports only a portion of the unclaimed property available in the United States. There are commercial sites as well that provide the same information or portions of the information for a fee. Some consumer reporting sites that conduct the research and assist consumers will do so without charge or expense to the consumers. In Australia, unclaimed money laws provide a one to two year reporting period each year whereby unclaimed bank accounts, superannuation, deceased estate inheritances, insurance, shares, dividends, utility deposits, unpresented cheques and other forms of "unclaimed money" are reported to the appropriate governing body under which the organisation holding the money falls under. This can include states in Australia or the Commonwealth. Money is unclaimed money if it is money whose owners is not identifiable. Owners of unclaimed money can apply to the governing body where the unclaimed money is being held, however, in some cases, the owner is required to go back to the organisation who lodged the money as unclaimed. Unclaimed Money Professionals or Unclaimed Money Agents also can assist owners to claim back their unclaimed money. Due to the strict requirements to claim unclaimed money back in Australia, people may need the assistance of a professional or licensed private investigator to locate support documents for their claim of payment.

Mislaid property

Property is generally deemed to have been mislaid or misplaced if it is found in a place where the true owner likely ''did'' intend to set it, but then simply forgot to pick it up again. For example, a wallet found in a shop lying on a counter near a cash register will likely be deemed ''misplaced'' rather than ''lost''. Under common law principles, the finder of a misplaced object has a duty to turn it over to the owner of the premises, on the theory that the true owner is likely to return to that location to search for his misplaced item. If the true owner does not return within a reasonable time (which varies considerably depending on the circumstances), the property becomes that of the owner of the premises.

Abandoned property

Property is generally deemed to have been abandoned if it is found in a place where the true owner likely intended to leave it, but is in such a condition that it is apparent that he or she has no intention of returning to claim it. Abandoned property generally becomes the property of whoever should find it and take possession of it first, although some states have enacted statutes under which certain kinds of abandoned propertyusually cars, wrecked ships and wrecked aircraft

escheat Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a ...

, meaning that they become the property of the state. In the United States, property left behind by a tenant is generally presumed abandoned after anywhere from 1 week to 1 year, and if unclaimed, may be disposed of or sold to recoup storage costs; in some states the difference may be kept by the landlord, in others returned to the tenant, and in others it must be turned over to the state or county. Virginia requires only 24 hour storage for evictions. Maryland allows individual counties to set required storage times. Colorado allows immediate disposal (but not sale), while Georgia and Texas allow it to be immediately placed outside and claimed by anyone, and Arkansas allows the landlord to immediately claim the property for themselves to do as they wish.

Treasure trove

Treasure trove is property that consists of coins or currency hidden by the owner. To be considered ''treasure trove'' and not ''mislaid property'', the property must have been deliberately hidden or concealed, and sufficiently long ago that the original owner can be considered dead or not discoverable. For example, under historic English law, one hundred Roman coins found buried in a pot would have been treasure trove whilst one hundred Roman coins which were lost over time in a marketplace would not have been treasure trove, as they were not deliberately hidden as a single hoard. However, the law of treasure trove has now been replaced by the Treasure Act under which this distinction between lost and deposited items does not generally apply. Under American common law, treasure trove belongs to the finder unless the original owner reclaims. Some states have rejected the American common law and hold that treasure trove belongs to the owner of the property in which the treasure trove was found. These courts reason that the American common law rule encourages

. Under the traditional English common law, treasure trove belongs to

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

, though the finder may be paid a reward.

Recent developments

In the

, the

National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws The Uniform Law Commission (ULC), also called the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, is a non-profit, American unincorporated association. Established in 1892, the ULC aims to provide U.S. states (plus the District of C ...

sought to address the problems arising from these types of property through provisions of the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. The act was first drafted and promulgated in 1981 and a revised version, the

Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act Revise or revised may refer to: Bibles * Revised Version of the King James Bible ** New Revised Standard Version of the King James Bible Government and law * Revised Penal Code of the Philippines * Revised Statutes of the United States Other use ...

was introduced in 1995. The act specifically focuses on the problem of unclaimed money in bank accounts and corporate coffers, and the corresponding

ment. In July 2016, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws revisited the 1995 version of the Uniform Act again and ultimately passed the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (RUUPA) of 2016. As of September 2020, only five states have enacted a version of a law inspired by the RUUPA: Tennessee, Kentucky, Utah, Colorado, and Vermont. Other states have adopted similar laws but with significant deviations from the RUUPA. As a result of the Act, each state that has adopted the act operates an Unclaimed Property fund in which the proceeds from abandoned bank accounts, unpresented checks, etc. are to be turned over to the state after a specified period of time. Depending on state law, the money may be held either in perpetuity (i.e., the funds ''never'' escheat to the state; an example would be Texas), or after a long period of time (whereby it is presumed that the owner is deceased with no heirs) the funds will escheat to the state. Due to the increasing mobility of the population, 39 states have joined together to operate MissingMoney.com, a searchable database which lists unclaimed funds in these states. Another website at Unclaimed.org allows searches without charge for the remaining 11 states. Many commercial websites also offer this service at a charge. A searchable database for unclaimed money and property is available in Canada from the

Bank of Canada The Bank of Canada (BoC; french: Banque du Canada) is a Crown corporation and Canada's central bank. Chartered in 1934 under the ''Bank of Canada Act'', it is responsible for formulating Canada's monetary policy,OECD. OECD Economic Surveys: Ca ...

. A similar problem has developed with respect to

orphan works An orphan work is a copyright-protected work for which rightsholders are positively indeterminate or uncontactable. Sometimes the names of the originators or rightsholders are known, yet it is impossible to contact them because additional details ...

, artistic or literary works for which a

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

is in effect, but for whom the copyright owner cannot be found.Jon W. Bruce and James W. Ely Jr., ''Cases and Materials on Modern Property Law'', West Group (St. Paul MN, 2003) p. 152.

References

External links

{{wiktionarypar, lost property, mislaid property, abandoned property
Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization

IAPPR – The International Association of Professional Probate Researchers, Genealogists & Heir Hunters

Full text of the ''Unclaimed Money Act of 1995''
(New South Wales, Australia)
National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators
(United States, some Canadian provinces, and Kenya) Personal property law Squatting