Undue Enrichment

USA Today recently had a story about a couple in Pennsylvania. They deposited a check to their account for $1,772.50. The bank made an encoding error and gave them credit for $177,250.00. This does happen on occasion. People key in the numbers, and people make mistakes.

When the couple transferred money to another account, bought a car, and were looking to buy a new home in Florida with this "bonus," they turned what would have been an embarassing moment for the bank into a criminal act.

When an obvious mistake like this happens, the couple has no right to spend the money. Checks and balances are in place so the mistake would be caught. It may take a day, or a week or a month. It depends on how often each bank and each party involved with that check balances their account. And if this couple doesn't have the financial resources to replace that money, what would they expect to happen? We call it "undue enrichment" and it means you can't take what isn't yours, even if you received it because of someone's error.

We were happy to see that many readers of that story posted comments that the couple should have known better. One person questioned the possibility of criminal charges. That is up to the bank and the district attorney. But if someone spends large sums of money that are not theirs, and they can't repay it, what else should happen? The bank has little choice as it has to recover the money.