🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <330a0be5.19977294@news2.gte.net>,
Elwin Bullard II <bounty@gte.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 18 Feb 1997 03:44:41 GMT, wbb@netcom.com (Will Bell) wrote:
>>In a previous article, Vic Goldberg <vic@tc.cornell.edu> wrote:
>>>This weekend, my wife received a check in the mail for 
>>>$7,500 from Signet Bank.  Only catch?  This was an 
>>>unsolicited loan!  This was not a replica, or One of those
>>>other gimicks - just endorse and deposit.
>I thought that anything sent to you through the mail that you had not
>asked for was yours to keep->no stings attatched.  check with a
>lawyer. It may be yours to keep.

     Ummmmm, before a bank sends out a bunch of checks for $7500, they're
probably going to make sure that they've got legal ground to stand on...
     The law says that if you receive unsolicited _goods_ (merchandise)
through the mail, you aren't obligated to pay for them, or to pay to return
them.  This law was passed because it was considered unfair to make people
deal with the logistics of returning a package they didn't want in the first
place. 
     A check with "By signing this, you agree to..." language is not goods;
it's essentially a contract offer.  The law above does not apply.  If you
like the offer, accept it; if you don't like it, reject it and toss it out.
(The same applies to those "By signing this, you agree to change your long
distance company..." checks; the difference is that if you cash a $20 check
from AT&T and then reject the switch, it probably won't be worth AT&T's time
to go after you--a check for $7500 is another matter.)
     At this point, someone will probably say "Well, you can just write
'without prejudice' or 'under duress' on the check and cash it."  Wrong again.
In some states, if someone owes you a debt and the amount of that debt is in
dispute, and they send you a check marked 'payment in full' for less than the
amount of the debt, you can endorse it 'without prejudice' or 'under duress'
and cash it, without losing your right to sue for the remainder of the debt.
This does not apply in this situation; the bank doesn't owe you a debt, and
the check isn't in payment of a debt.
     I would agree that sending large-valued checks in this way probably
_should_ be illegal, because of the potential problems it can cause (checks
being intercepted in the mail, etc.).  But it's currently legal, and if
someone sends you a loan-offer check you don't want, your best recourse is
to toss it out and write the sender a nastygram telling them not to do it
again.
     (Disclaimer: not a lawyer; not legal advice.  For external use only.)
-- 
\o\    If you're interested in books/stories with transformation themes,   \o\
/o/  try <URL:http://www.halcyon.com/phaedrus/translist/translist.html>.   /o/
\o\New entries for this list always appreciated.  FC1.21:FC(w/c)p6arw A- C-\o\
/o/D H+ M>+ P R T++++ W** Z+ Sm RLCT a cmn++++$ d e++ f+++ h- i++wf p-- sm#/o/