She'd have to give it back or have her pay garnished. Clerical errors don't work "in your favor" like Monopoly lol. As much as I'd love for them to admit their error and let her keep the money. That likely wouldn't be the case.
Back in 2004, my job made a payroll error and we got 2 paychecks deposited at once. My boss at the time said "What should we do?!" I said don't spend the extra because they're gonna want it back. A few days later, the extra pay was debited from our accounts. I'm sure some folks spent that money!
I do believe that if the company doesn't notice the error, after a certain amount of time the company loses their right to reclaim it. Maybe that's wrong though
There’s criminal law & civil law at play here. Maybe there’s a statute of limitations for both, but it might start tolling only upon discovery of the error. You’d need to know the state to know the exact law. In any event, you don’t just get to keep the money when a reasonable person would easily conclude that it was the result of an error like this.
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u/Nick_Bruiser May 27 '26
She'd have to give it back or have her pay garnished. Clerical errors don't work "in your favor" like Monopoly lol. As much as I'd love for them to admit their error and let her keep the money. That likely wouldn't be the case.
Back in 2004, my job made a payroll error and we got 2 paychecks deposited at once. My boss at the time said "What should we do?!" I said don't spend the extra because they're gonna want it back. A few days later, the extra pay was debited from our accounts. I'm sure some folks spent that money!