Justices to referee states' dispute over uncashed checks

The Supreme Court has agreed to referee a dispute between Delaware and 23 states over more than $150 million in uncashed MoneyGram checks.

The justices on Monday stepped into the dispute involving uncashed checks from Dallas-based MoneyGram, which has been submitting unclaimed money to Delaware.

The other states say the MoneyGram checks, which work like money orders but generally are in larger amounts and sold at banks, should be sent back to the state of purchase.

MoneyGram is incorporated in Delaware, as are many other publicly traded companies in the U.S. Delaware says state law requires that MoneyGram send unclaimed property to the company's state of incorporation instead of the state of origin.

Abandoned property is a major source of general fund revenue for Delaware.

The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court, which has the authority to rule on suits between states.

The other states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.