I Found $90 in the Subway. Is It Yours? (The New York Times)
The New York Times, January 24, 2019
I Found $90 in the Subway. Is It Yours?
“What are you supposed to do with money that isn’t yours?….The law is more prescriptive, even if most have no clue what it says, according to Bruce Green, a professor and director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham Law School. ‘The question is, ‘Does the law accord with people’s ordinary moral and societal intuitions?” said Mr. Green, who is also the chairman of the New York City Bar Association’s Professional Ethics Committee. ‘Because nobody’s going to know to look up the law unless somebody gets a call from a reporter,’ he added. Mr. Green was gracious enough to do just that and here’s what he found: Under Section 252 of New York personal property law, any person who finds an item worth $20 or more has 10 days to return it to the owner or report it to the authorities. Fail to do so, and you face a maximum fine of $100 and up to six months in prison. (Yikes!) ‘I don’t think anyone’s going to prosecute you,’ Mr. Green assured me. He also offered a recommendation in case I wanted to keep the cash: ‘Don’t write a piece about it because that’s pretty inculpatory.’ Noted.”
