Page:Delaware v. Pennsylvania (2023).pdf/3

Rh a matter of equity among the several States.” §§2501(3), 2503. Because MoneyGram does not keep records of creditor addresses as a matter of business practice, application of the common law to the Disputed Instruments would produce the same inequitable result that the FDA is designed to remedy. Pp. 9–14.

(b) Both Delaware and, to some extent, the Special Master, claim that even if the Disputed Instruments qualify as “other similar written instrument[s]” under the FDA, they are also “third party bank check[s],” which are expressly excluded from the FDA. The problem with this argument is that the FDA does not define that phrase. Nor does that phrase have a commonly accepted meaning. Delaware insists that the term means a check signed by a bank officer and paid through a third party. But the State provides no theory as to why it matters to the FDA’s escheatment rules whether a financial instrument is or is not paid through a third party. In his Second Interim Report, the Special Master offered the view that “third party bank check” was intended to exclude from the FDA’s reach certain well-known financial instruments upon which a bank may be liable, specifically, cashier’s checks, certified checks, and teller’s checks and thus, to the extent a bank shares liability with MoneyGram on a Disputed Instrument, that product should likewise be characterized as a third