ANALYZE THE SITUATION 11.3 KARI RENFROE WAS EMPLOYED as a room attendant at the

Question

ANALYZE THE SITUATION 11.3 KARI RENFROE WAS EMPLOYED as a room attendant at the Lodge Inn motel. One day, as she came to work, she discovered an expensive leather jacket stuffed inside a plastic shopping bag in the employee sec tion of the parking lot. The jacket had no ownership marks on it, and neither did the plastic bag. Kari turned the jacket over to the manager of the motel despite the fact that there was no policy in place regarding items found outside the motel. The jacket was still unclaimed 120 days later, at which time Kari approached the manager and asked if she could have the jacket, since she found it. The manager refused to give Kari the jacket, stating that all unclaimed property found on the motel's premises belonged to the motel. 1. Would the jacket be considered mislaid, lost, or abandoned property? 2. Who is the current, rightful owner of the jacket? 3. How could the motel manager avoid future confusion about handling "found property?

Explanation / Answer

1. The jacket would be considered as abandoned property since no one came forward to claim it even after 120 days. Nor was there any complain lodged or enquiries made.

2. The current rightful owner is the motel as firstly it was found within its perimeters i.e. in the employee section of parking area and secondly its own staff found it and deposited it with the manager of the motel. Any other action by the employee would have been treated as theft or unlawful action since the jacket was found within the jurisdiction of the motel.

3. The motel manager should ideally formulate a policy for handling "found" property to ensure there is no ambiguity over its status. It may have a policy to hand over the "found" item to the original founder after a certain number of days have passed and also after adequate publicity by prominently putting up a "found item" notice in its reception area. If no one comes forward to claim the lost item, the policy should be to hand over the same to its founder.

In the absence of such a policy, the founder may be tempted not to surrender the item with the motel which may not only harm the motel's reputation but may also endanger the employee's career in case it was discovered who kept the lost/abandoned item.  

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