Am I obligated to return overpayment?

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i had a wee bit of a bank problem about 10 years ago. decided to close my account and move to another bank. not a major amount- only $3500 in my account. i got my cash out of one bank and went straight to another to open an account. got everything set, handed my envelope from the other ban with the (supposedly) $3500 in it. banker lady counted it and said,"do you want to hold on to this other thousand or put it into your account,too?"
huh? i wasnt sure what to do but the banker lady was right up on those types of laws and explained it all pretty good to me, then said,"they must be giving out christmas bonuses this year to people that close accounts there."
got a letter a bit later from old bank. took it into new bank to banker lady. she printed off the proper pages of banking laws and suggested when i send it to them to add,"have a nice day."
in the end, the teller was responsible for extra thousand.
seems it would be similar in your situation- accounting would be responsible for THEIR mistake.

In a case like that I would have returned the money. Tellers are poorly paid and a thousand dollars is a lot of money to someone making close to minimum wage.
 
In a case like that I would have returned the money. Tellers are poorly paid and a thousand dollars is a lot of money to someone making close to minimum wage.

+1 Depending on state laws etc. usually the bank has to eat the loss. They can however fire the employee. How does the bank know if it was an honest mistake on the tellers part or theft, a teller can purposely give the cash to a friend. Either way, bad situation for the teller especially being a $1000.00 mistake. Shame on anyone not returning the cash!!

Back to OP's problem, I would contact the former employer and have them show me where they figured how I was over paid
 
I drove up to an ATM on the way to work a year ago to get some cash. Put in my card and was going through the menus when I noticed a wad of cash in the slot. I took it. Counted it: $80. Bank was closed that early. Unsure what to do, I headed to work and by the time I neared my work site the bank branch close by was now open. Went in, explained situation, handed over the cash. Teller said "Wow, not a lot of people would have gone to the trouble of reporting it." Called over manager, who assured me she would call the manager at the branch where the cash was left behind to trace it back to the prior withdrawal before mine.

Sure, I could have kept it, but it wasn't mine. End of story. Somebody drove away without their money and should get it back. No brainer.

Also, I'm quite sure all this was captured on camera and my own sense of ethics aside, I don't want a video out there of me driving away with someone else's money and doing nothing about it. Would it be illegal to keep it? Not sure but the stress of wondering about it would be more than $80 worth.

My honor is not for sale, and I sleep well at night.

This story is a different use case than LW's corporate messup, but I offer it as an example of how I react if i come into someone else's money and notice it in time to act on it.
 
I’m a schmuck, so I can weigh in. Generally, you don’t get to keep something given by mistake. So if the severance agreement said you get $10,000 but they gave you a check for $12,000, you don’t have a right to the extra $2,000. But if they put $12,000 in the agreement, intending it to be $10,000, that’s not a mistake. You agreed to $12,000 and that’s what you got. Lots of variables here. Laws a different state to state. I doubt anyone will take legal action over such a small amount but who knows?


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One of the members of my regular Wednesday "lunch bunch" is a lawyer. I'm taking the letter and the severance agreement to show her. IIRC, the severance agreement does not specify a specific dollar amount, but only describes compensation for a specific number of weeks and vacation pay, minus taxes, etc. I'm pretty sure I can tacitly tell them to "pound salt"

That was going to be a my next question, I was going to ask if they had given you any breakdown of the severance pay, with details & amounts, and if you signed that when leaving. That would basically be a contract, and if they had paid you that amount, that is yours. Unless they paid you over the amount detailed in that letter, they would not be able to recover. It sounds like they didn't give a specific breakdown, but the numbers going into that must be concrete, i.e., the number of weeks, vacation days, etc.

Good luck!
 
An aspect of this I find troubling is that they paid you a YEAR ago. In that time, you made plans on how to make use of that money. Please do not say how you used it (saved some, saved all, or spent it all, whatever). But it would certainly be human nature to spend at least some of it, and spent based on the amount you had. If they'd have given you $2000 less, you'd likely have spent a lot less, and/or planned differently.

Now had they realized the error in a few days or a few weeks (if it was an error), that would be more understandable. You'd not likely to have made long term plans, or done some quick short-term spending already based on having "X" amount of money, that you would not have done the same way if it was $2000 less. To come asking for it back a year later, is not very reasonable.

It would be great and so fitting that if after further review of your severance agreement..... that they owed you more $ after all. Or if it caused you to reconsider WHY they laid you off specifically, rather than someone else. If it might be a matter of age discrimination or other discrimination that could open a huge can of worms for them legally (Unless it was more a matter of ending that job position, than say dumping you to plug in someone younger they could pay less).
 
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... (Unless it was more a matter of ending that job position, than say dumping you to plug in someone younger they could pay less).

Everybody they let go had been with the company in excess of 15 years. Now they have the money they need to hire more "code jockeys" in Mumbai.
 
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They can likely come after you legally. It will likely cost them 10,000 to try to recover 2,000.

They won't come legally. This is a hail mary pass with no teeth.
 
Maybe you can offer to wash dishes to make up the $2K???

Something similar to this might be an entertaining twist. You could offer to return to your previous position and work enough hours to pay off the amount in question. Of course, they would be required to provide the benefits that were in place when you separated from the firm.

You would assume the moral high ground, and probably shut them up.

James
 
They can likely come after you legally. It will likely cost them 10,000 to try to recover 2,000.

They won't come legally. This is a hail mary pass with no teeth.

They would most likely"sell" this receivable to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar and write off the difference.
 
I agree with George's point - a year is way too long to then come asking for it back.
 
They can likely come after you legally. It will likely cost them 10,000 to try to recover 2,000.

They won't come legally. This is a hail mary pass with no teeth.

Unless they have attorneys on retainer. How big is the company?
 
It might also cost LW $10k to protect his $2K. We were a big company and even had a lawyer at our small satellite office. But I thought he was more of a contracts person.
 
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