(a)  Any sum payable on a check, draft, or similar instrument, except those subject to § 33-21.1-4, on which a banking or financial organization is directly liable, including a cashier’s check and a certified check, which has been outstanding for more than three (3) years after it was payable or after its issuance if payable on demand, is presumed abandoned, unless the owner, within three (3) years, has communicated in writing with the banking or financial organization concerning it or otherwise indicated an interest as evidenced by a memorandum or other record on file prepared by an employee thereof.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 33-21.1-5

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Financial organization: means a savings and loan association, cooperative bank, building and loan association, or credit union. See Rhode Island General Laws 33-21.1-1
  • Holder: means a person, wherever organized or domiciled, who is:

    (i)  In possession of property belonging to another,

    (ii)  A trustee, or

    (iii)  Indebted to another on an obligation. See Rhode Island General Laws 33-21.1-1

  • in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
  • Owner: means a depositor in the case of a deposit, a beneficiary in the case of a trust other than a deposit in trust, a creditor, claimant, or payee in the case of other intangible property, or a person having a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this chapter or his or her legal representative. See Rhode Island General Laws 33-21.1-1

(b)  A holder may not deduct from the amount of any instrument subject to this section any charge imposed by reason of the failure to present the instrument for payment unless there is a valid and enforceable written contract between the holder and the owner of the instrument pursuant to which the holder may impose a charge, and the holder regularly imposes the charges and does not regularly reverse or otherwise cancel them.

History of Section.
P.L. 1986, ch. 500, § 3; P.L. 1992, ch. 133, art. 86, § 2.