Page:Delaware v. Pennsylvania (2023).pdf/6

2 Systems, Inc. (MoneyGram) possesses. Delaware argues that this Court’s common-law rules of escheatment apply, which means that the abandoned proceeds should go to Delaware as MoneyGram’s State of incorporation. A collective of other States (the Defendant States) argues that a federal statute—the Disposition of Abandoned Money Orders and Traveler’s Checks Act (Federal Disposition Act or FDA), 88 Stat. 1525, 12 U. S. C. §2501 et seq.—governs the products at issue, and therefore, as a general matter, the abandoned proceeds should escheat to the State where the products were purchased. We hold that the FDA covers the instruments in question and thus that they should generally escheat to the State of purchase, pursuant to §2503.

To decide which escheatment rules apply, we must interpret a federal statute that abrogates our precedent. Thus, we begin with a discussion of this Court’s common-law rules for escheatment, followed by a description of the statute that partially displaced those rules.

Our first case to address the escheatment of intangible property involved Western Union money orders. Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Pennsylvania, 368 U. S. 71, 72 (1961). At the time, if an individual wanted to safely send money to another person, she could go to a Western Union office and purchase a money order. Ibid. Such a purchaser would give Western Union the value of the money order plus a fee. Ibid. Then, Western Union would send a telegraph message to the company office closest to the intended recipient (or “intended payee”). Ibid. Upon notification, the intended payee could come to his local Western Union office to collect a negotiable draft, which he could cash immediately or keep to cash in the future. Ibid.