Finding Out Regulations for Lost Items

In a recent episode of the CBS detective series “Cagney & Lacey,� a law-abiding citizen found a money clip containing $500 and turned it over to the police. She was told that if its owner did not come in to claim it within a certain number of days, the money clip and money would be hers.

For once, television’s portrayal of the law was relatively accurate.

Under California law, “finders� can be legally “keepers,� as long as they follow the rules. The rules are contained in the California Civil Code, beginning at Section 2080.

Legal Duties

First of all, the rules say, if you find something that is “lost,� you are not obligated to “take charge of it.� In other words, you can just leave the money clip lying on the ground. If you don’t pick it up, you won’t have any legal responsibility for it. But once you pick it up, you have some legal duties and obligations to worry about.

Once you take charge of the lost item, you are considered a “depository for the owner.� This doesn’t mean that you are insuring the safety of the item, but you are required to use the same degree of care that an ordinary, prudent person would use in handling the lost item.

These rules also apply to some “lost� living things like dogs and cats. If you save any “domestic animal from drowning or starvation,� you have the same legal obligations as when you find a wallet on the curb.

Your first duty is to inform the owner. If you don’t make “reasonable and just efforts� to find the owner, you’re guilty of theft, punishable by imprisonment.

If you find the owner, you must return the goods or the animals without charging a fee, except a “reasonable charge for saving and taking care of the property.�

If the owner is unknown and the property is worth less than $10, you don’t have any further legal obligations. The property is yours to keep.

However, if the property is worth $10 or more, you must turn it over to the police or sheriff’s department of the jurisdiction in which it was found. The police will hold onto the item for 90 days. During that time, if the owner comes in, proves his ownership and pays all “reasonable charges,� the property is returned to him.

No Definition

The law doesn’t say what it means by “reasonable charges,� but perhaps the owner will have to pay storage fees to the finder and the police. One can imagine all sorts of other reasonable charges, especially if the property happens to be a “domestic animal�--the cleanup charges for a teething puppy could be rather high.

After 90 days, if the property is worth less than $50, you own it, free and clear. If the property is worth $50 or more, you’ll have to wait a little longer. The police are then required to publish a notice about the property at least once in a newspaper of general circulation. Then, seven days later, if the true owner still has not appeared, the property will be yours--that is, after you pay for the cost of the notice in the newspaper.

Government employees who find lost items in the course of their employment do not get to keep what they find, even if the owner never appears. Instead, the property must be sold at a public auction.

Legal Brief

Lawyers spent more than $28 million last year to advertise their services on television. Television advertising by lawyers increased about 58% from 1983 when lawyers spent only $17.8 million, according to figures released by the Television Bureau of Advertising in New York. Before 1977, lawyers were prohibited from advertising by the Bar’s code of ethics, but in that year the Supreme Court held those prohibitions to be unconstitutional.

Attorney Jeffrey S. Klein, a member of The Times’ corporate legal staff, cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about the law. Do not telephone. Write to Legal View, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.