Discovering that you won the lottery or were passed down a hefty inheritance is most certainly a life-changing experience, but what if you found out you’d received such wealth much later than you should have? An immigrant family in Bronx, New York, had such a discovery — a whopping 28 years after the fact. Due to a faulty factory accident back in 1996, the father had lost three fingers at work. The company claimed the machine was defective and agreed with the court to pay the dad a $1.5M judgment.
“The issue is my father had no idea that this lawsuit was even filed,” one of the Bronx dad’s children posted to Reddit. “He sat for disposition according the case file but the company he worked at made him believe that nothing was going to come from it so he let it go.” After the father went through physical therapy for his injury, the family eventually moved to a new home and changed their phone number. “Which is what I assume prevented the lawyer from finding us though I question how that’s possible,” says OP.
All that being said, the Bronx family wishes to collect the owed $1.5M to the dad since it was never paid out. It would make a huge difference for him as he’s getting close to retiring. However, OP couldn’t help but wonder how life would have been different if the $1.5M had been properly paid to them. They clarified that, although they were originally immigrants, they possessed permanent resident visas, paid yearly taxes, and eventually became citizens in 2004. Regardless, it doesn’t make sense why the court judgment wasn’t given to them after all these many years.
The top commenter, along with thousands of upvoters, believe that “contacting the attorney would be [a] very helpful start” for the Bronx family. Since the attorney who was on the case at the time of the court settlement isn’t available, they’ll need someone else with access to the files or evidence they require. Another recommended a quick search of the NYS Comptroller’s unclaimed funds registry, to which several decided to troll a little with their replies. “Oh wow I just searched that and found I had claims. Gracias I just made my rent this month,” joked one. “Damn I dont even live in NY, but i just checked for kicks and now they are mailing me a check lol. Thank you!” remarked another.
Jokes aside, anything over a hundred thousand, let alone a million dollars, is a massive amount of cash. Hopefully, OP is able to get the compensation their father is owed and greatly improve their family’s life situation.
