JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. v. Super. Ct.

BACKGROUND

1. California’s Unclaimed Property Law “Escheat” is the “vesting in the state of title to property the whereabouts of whose owner is unknown or whose owner is unknown or which a known owner has refused to accept, whether by judicial determination or by operation of law, subject to the right of claimants to appear and claim the escheated property or any portion thereof.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 1300, subd. (c).)1 California’s Unclaimed Property Law (UPL) regulates the escheatment of abandoned property to the State of California. (§ 1500 et seq.) The general rule in California, codified in section 1510, is that unclaimed intangible property escheats to California when the “last known address” of the “apparent owner” is in California. (§ 1510, subds. (a), (b)(1).) This rule is a codification of the federal priority rule for escheatment. (See § 1510, Legislative Committee com. (1968) [“Section 1510 describe[s] types of

All undesignated statutory references are to the Code of Civil

Procedure.

2 abandoned intangible property that this state may claim under the rules stated in Texas v. New Jersey [(1965)] 379 U.S. 674.”].) Section 1511 adds an additional requirement to this…