Bank demending repayment of "severence" pay

[bgrubb7]

What is the name of your state? Illinois.

I appologize for the lengthy post, but i felt the need to explain the entire situation.

My wife lost her job back in January due to company downsizing. The very week after she lost her job there was a myserious $422 dollar deposit made into her checking account. Myself being skeptical, called the bank to verify that it was not a mistake. They verified that is was deposited Via electronic check by her former employer. These deposits continued every pay period following for the same amount. It was not the same amount as her normal paychecks that had been direct deposited in the past, so it was not a case of the company neglecting to stop her paychecks after termination. These were separate deposits, that could not have been a mistake. Knowing the inner workings of the company, I know that each and every pay period, all individual payroll payouts are signed off on, and are also review quarterly with their accountant. These deposits could not have been a mistake. Someone had to initiate them, and approve of them.

My wife was close freinds with her former employer, and they were obviously not on speaking terms following her dismissal. I wanted her to call her former boss and find out what this was all about. She refused to speak to him and said that he must feel guilty about letting her go and his way of making it right is to give her "severence" pay. I asked around to former employees of the company, and they said that they had heard of him doing that before, and usually the "severence" usually went on until he knew that the terminated employee had a new job.

Now, a smart person would have left that money in the account and not touched it. However, with my wife out of work, we had no choice but to use that money to get by.

Sure enough, 9 months later my Wife found a new job, and the deposits stopped the very next week (Her new job had called her previous employer for references, so her old boss knew she was getting a job, plus this is a very small town & word travels fast in circles)

A week later we recieved a letter from the bank, and their collection attorney, stating that these funds belonged to another member of the bank, and that we had Illegaly used the funds, and we have to pay all of it back ($7,422).

We called the bank to find out what was going on. The bank refused to give any information saying that it was protected by privacy laws. Their collections attorney also refuses to give us any information. Keep in mind that we questioned the legitimacy of these deposits with the bank on several occasions earlier in the year, and they verified that they were ligitimate deposits at the time.

Basically her former boss, felt guilty, put deposits in her account to "make it right" and since has changed his mind and wants it all back. We can never prove any of this, as all he will say is that it was all a mistake. We hae also tried to contact her former boss personally and he will not answer calls.

So basically my question is if it was indeed an error on behalf of her former employer, are we legally responsible to pay it all back? Is it different if it was an accounting error on behalf of the bank? If we can prove that her former employer knew about and even initiated the deposits, then are we liable? I don't see how we can be forced to pay this money back if even if it was an error on behalf of her former employer.

Advice. Yes we are planning on consulting with a local attorney, but it will be a while before we get in, and I'm looking for all the info I can get.

Thanks in advance.

[CarrieT]

Originally Posted by bgrubb7

What is the name of your state? Illinois.

I appologize for the lengthy post, but i felt the need to explain the entire situation.

My wife lost her job back in January due to company downsizing. The very week after she lost her job there was a myserious $422 dollar deposit made into her checking account. Myself being skeptical, called the bank to verify that it was not a mistake. They verified that is was deposited Via electronic check by her former employer. These deposits continued every pay period following for the same amount. It was not the same amount as her normal paychecks that had been direct deposited in the past, so it was not a case of the company neglecting to stop her paychecks after termination. These were separate deposits, that could not have been a mistake. Knowing the inner workings of the company, I know that each and every pay period, all individual payroll payouts are signed off on, and are also review quarterly with their accountant. These deposits could not have been a mistake. Someone had to initiate them, and approve of them.

My wife was close freinds with her former employer, and they were obviously not on speaking terms following her dismissal. I wanted her to call her former boss and find out what this was all about. She refused to speak to him and said that he must feel guilty about letting her go and his way of making it right is to give her "severence" pay. I asked around to former employees of the company, and they said that they had heard of him doing that before, and usually the "severence" usually went on until he knew that the terminated employee had a new job.

Now, a smart person would have left that money in the account and not touched it. However, with my wife out of work, we had no choice but to use that money to get by.

Sure enough, 9 months later my Wife found a new job, and the deposits stopped the very next week (Her new job had called her previous employer for references, so her old boss knew she was getting a job, plus this is a very small town & word travels fast in circles)

A week later we recieved a letter from the bank, and their collection attorney, stating that these funds belonged to another member of the bank, and that we had Illegaly used the funds, and we have to pay all of it back ($7,422).

We called the bank to find out what was going on. The bank refused to give any information saying that it was protected by privacy laws. Their collections attorney also refuses to give us any information. Keep in mind that we questioned the legitimacy of these deposits with the bank on several occasions earlier in the year, and they verified that they were ligitimate deposits at the time.

Basically her former boss, felt guilty, put deposits in her account to "make it right" and since has changed his mind and wants it all back. We can never prove any of this, as all he will say is that it was all a mistake. We hae also tried to contact her former boss personally and he will not answer calls.

So basically my question is if it was indeed an error on behalf of her former employer, are we legally responsible to pay it all back? Is it different if it was an accounting error on behalf of the bank? If we can prove that her former employer knew about and even initiated the deposits, then are we liable? I don't see how we can be forced to pay this money back if even if it was an error on behalf of her former employer.

Advice. Yes we are planning on consulting with a local attorney, but it will be a while before we get in, and I'm looking for all the info I can get.

Thanks in advance.

Have you asked for copies (front and back) of the deposit slips/cheques deposited or copies of the electronic transfer information? This is YOUR account, and you have the right to view any activity that goes on in YOUR account. Privacy laws dont mean you cannot have information about YOUR account, and any deposits made into YOUR account IS your business.

I dont know what bank you have, however most banks now have online banking facilities and when you access that way, you can actually see a picture of any deposit slips etc that have been filled out. I only suggest this because if you had the deposit slips, it would show what account number AND NAME the deposit was made to. And its hard to argue that it was put 'in the wrong account' if your name and account number are on the deposit slip.

However, there are several very knowledgeable people on here who are experts on things like this, and they will probably post - but if it were me, thats what I would try first.
Carrie

[bgrubb7]

They don't have that information online. We calledthe accounting dept. at the local Branch and spoke to someone who knew nothig about our situation and simply requested copies of deposit slips and electronic check. They said no problem, they would have to get that information from the main branch and mail it out. 15 minutes later we receivd a call from the collections deptartment stating that can't share any of that information with us. They are hiding behind these "privacy laws". They told me I would have to speak the the collections attorney. They collections attorney said that they don't have that information either, and that they couldn't speak with me because I'm a defendant, and that I would have to hire attorney in order to speak with them further on the matter.

What a bunch of bull. Someone is hiding something, or they are just trying to scare me into giving this money back. There is no way that I can be forced to hire an attorney in order to access information.

[bgrubb7]

Basically if they can prove that this was a banking error, then I have no problem paying this back. But if as I suspect, the former employer, intentionally put this money into my wife's account, then they are not going to get 1 red cent.

[CarrieT]

Originally Posted by bgrubb7

They don't have that information online. We calledthe accounting dept. at the local Branch and spoke to someone who knew nothig about our situation and simply requested copies of deposit slips and electronic check. They said no problem, they would have to get that information from the main branch and mail it out. 15 minutes later we receivd a call from the collections deptartment stating that can't share any of that information with us. They are hiding behind these "privacy laws". They told me I would have to speak the the collections attorney. They collections attorney said that they don't have that information either, and that they couldn't speak with me because I'm a defendant, and that I would have to hire attorney in order to speak with them further on the matter.

What a bunch of bull. Someone is hiding something, or they are just trying to scare me into giving this money back. There is no way that I can be forced to hire an attorney in order to access information.

Hm well that sounds very strange to me! If its YOUR account, you should be able to get ANY information about transactions to and from it.
Ok... well if it were me, the next thing I would do is search online for attorneys in my area who give free or low cost consultations. (I know in many courthouses there are free legal aid centers and there are also attorneys who, for a very nominal fee will give you a 30 min consultation in which you can ask any questions.. but make sure you have all the questions ahead of time written down).
Good luck!
Carrie