Overpaid After Quitting
I recently quit a job that direct deposited money into my account. The job has now continually paid me two checks into my account past my employment. My assumption is that the company never filed my leave paperwork. I never signed anything saying I quit, only verbally to my manager. How long does the statute of limitations allow me to keep the money before it is actually mine? When can the employer withdraw the checks?
1 answer | asked Nov 11, 2005 3:47 PM [EST] | applies to Illinois
Answers (1)
Let's Fix ...
....This before it gets any worse.
In strictest legal terms, this money never becomes yours.
Whether written or verbal, you worked for this employer on a "contract of hire". An essential element of a "Contract of Hire" is that you do the work more or less as agreed and the employer pays you more or less as agreed.
When you stopped doing the work, no matter the form of your resignation, and the employer paid you any earned time it owed you, the relationship was done. If payroll continued to forward checks to your account, the law does not treat that as a windfall to you. It treats it as "unjust enrichment" and the employer can file a suit in equity to recover the o'payment.
According to the banking rules and the regs of the IDOL, the bank cannot go back into your bank account and reverse the transactions. There are any number of bankers out there who will let them do it anyway.
I recommend you go to your bank tomorrow morning and cancel the direct deposit authorization. Withdraw the excess deposited and place it in some other account that bears interest. Notify your employer that they have o'payed you but that you now have a negative tax impact because of the o'payment and you would like to give them back fifty cents on the dollar and sign releases to call it square.
If you don't do this and you spend the money, someday you will get a summons for the funds and the employer will probably prevail. It is a Rule of the World that you will get the summons at the most inconvenient, stressful possible time. For your own sake, don't try to claim ownership of the money. In the end you will be inconvenienced and probably spend some avoidable attorney fees. Is this worth sitting around for five years or so, waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Think of this as a headache and not a windfall, and you will be happier with the outcome over the long haul, I guarantee you.
Anthony B. Cameron
posted by Anthony Cameron | Nov 13, 2005 7:12 PM [EST]
....This before it gets any worse.
In strictest legal terms, this money never becomes yours.
Whether written or verbal, you worked for this employer on a "contract of hire". An essential element of a "Contract of Hire" is that you do the work more or less as agreed and the employer pays you more or less as agreed.
When you stopped doing the work, no matter the form of your resignation, and the employer paid you any earned time it owed you, the relationship was done. If payroll continued to forward checks to your account, the law does not treat that as a windfall to you. It treats it as "unjust enrichment" and the employer can file a suit in equity to recover the o'payment.
According to the banking rules and the regs of the IDOL, the bank cannot go back into your bank account and reverse the transactions. There are any number of bankers out there who will let them do it anyway.
I recommend you go to your bank tomorrow morning and cancel the direct deposit authorization. Withdraw the excess deposited and place it in some other account that bears interest. Notify your employer that they have o'payed you but that you now have a negative tax impact because of the o'payment and you would like to give them back fifty cents on the dollar and sign releases to call it square.
If you don't do this and you spend the money, someday you will get a summons for the funds and the employer will probably prevail. It is a Rule of the World that you will get the summons at the most inconvenient, stressful possible time. For your own sake, don't try to claim ownership of the money. In the end you will be inconvenienced and probably spend some avoidable attorney fees. Is this worth sitting around for five years or so, waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Think of this as a headache and not a windfall, and you will be happier with the outcome over the long haul, I guarantee you.
Anthony B. Cameron
posted by Anthony Cameron | Nov 13, 2005 7:12 PM [EST]
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