Court: $500,000 in walls belongs to prior owner’s estate
Buyers found $500,000 in ammunition cans inside a Paradise Valley, Ariz., home. On May 31, 2012, an appeals court ruled the cash belonged to the estate of Robert A. Spann.
Homebuyers Sarina Jennings and Clinton McCallum found $500,000 hidden inside four military-style ammunition cans in the walls of a Paradise Valley, Arizona, house they purchased. An Arizona appeals court ruled the cash belonged to the estate of the home’s former owner, Robert A. Spann.
Jennings and McCallum bought the property in 2008. During a kitchen and bathroom remodel, a contractor’s worker opened a wall and found two ammunition cans filled with cash, then discovered two more inside the framing of an upstairs bathroom. The contracting company’s owner did not immediately report the find; the worker later told the homeowners and police took custody of the money.
The cash was traced to Robert A. Spann, who lived in the house until his death in 2001. Spann had been president and CEO of the engineering firm Corning Gilbert Inc. His daughters, Kim Spann and Karen Spann Grande, who handled parts of his estate, said they had previously found cash and other valuables hidden in similar containers at other properties tied to their father.
After the discovery, the homeowners and the contractor sued each other over the money. Separately, Karen Spann Grande, acting as personal representative for her father’s estate, filed a probate petition claiming the funds. The civil suits and the probate petition were consolidated before the trial court. Trial Judge Brian R. Hauser ruled the cash belonged to the estate, and the case was appealed.
On May 31, 2012, the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division 1, unanimously affirmed the trial court’s decision. Judge Maurice Portley wrote, “Although elementary school children like to say ‘finders keepers,’ the law treats found property differently,” and classified the $500,000 as “mislaid property,” not abandoned property or treasure trove.
The court’s decision turned on the legal distinction among categories of found property under Arizona common law. The judges found no evidence that Spann intended to give up ownership of the cash. The opinion noted that abandonment requires proof that a person “voluntarily and intentionally give[s] up a known right,” and the record did not show such intent.
Following the appeals court ruling, the estate retained legal ownership of the $500,000 under the mislaid property classification.
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