Legal Question in Business Law in California

Lost and found items

I work at a golf course in California and we get roughly 7-8 items dumped into our lost and found bin every month. Only about 10% (mostly electronic goods) ever find their way back to their owners. The rest we toss out after about 9 months to a year. I have an idea to auction this stuff off rather than waste it. I would greatly appreciate it if you would inform me of the legality of this.


Asked on 12/05/07, 9:42 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Lost and found items

I think this works legally with three limitations:

(1) First, if there is ANY way to determine or guess who the owner is, the finder must take all reasonable measures to determine the owner and notify him/her and return the item.

(2) Second, any auctioning must be done by or for the golf course; this is not a proper way for an employee of the golf course to make money for himself or herself!

(3) Finally, the lost property technically still belongs to the loser, not the finder, so the gold course should be prepared to fork over the money received from selling any item, should the loser step forward with some proof of loss.

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Answered on 12/05/07, 10:44 pm


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