"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article ,
lid says...
On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:58:39 -0400, Ned Simmons wrote:
In article ,
lid says...
On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:25:36 -0400, Ned Simmons
wrote:
In article ,
lid says...
Suppose that you receive a parcel that you never expected. For
example
a crotch rocket motorcycle engine. There is no return address. All
reasonable efforts to find the owner fail. No one contacts me in,
say,
2 weeks.
Does this item become my property?
Would it be legal to throw it away in garbage?
Would it be legal to sell it on ebay?
Is there a registry of stolen motorcycle engines?
What if I sell it and a month later, an owner materializes. Do I
owe
anything to the owner.
I am very leery of the idea of selling this motor on ebay. It
looks
like plenty of stolen motorcycle stuff is sold there and I, with
the
lame story of fedex leaving it in my driveway, would look like a
thief. If I do not mention that story at all, then people would
ask
all kinds of pointed questions like "how did you end up with this
engine if you do not know anything about it".
It seems pretty simple to me. My impression is that when
you spoke to FedEx you thought you may have received the
package due to an error on the part of the shipper. In that
case FedEx has no reponsibility to straighten out someone
else's mess.
Now that you've ruled that out, call FedEx and tell them
it's not your engine and they need to come and get it and
do their best to get it to the rightful owner. It might irk
you that the engine may never get to its proper destination
(it would me), but I don't think you have any claim on it.
It's not like you found it in the street with no idea of
where it's been - it was consigned to FedEx and it's their
responsibility.
Ned Simmons
It was addressed to me, not to someone else.
But you said you think that FedEx addressed it to you in
error after damaging the original packaging. If that's the
case it's clear to me that you have no claim on the engine
other than the fact that it's sitting in your garage. Only
after making another attempt to explain this clearly and
unambiguously to FedEx, preferably in writing, and then
waiting a reasonable amount of time, would I consider the
engine mine.
I already told them that I received it in error. They did not care. I
have no interest in babysitting them and going out ot my way to keep
their pockets full.
I don't think you owe FedEx anything at this point either,
but the engine does not belong to FedEx. It belongs to some
unknown person that you've been diligently trying to
identify. If and when you come to a dead end trying to
locate the owner yourself, to my way of thinking, the
proper thing is to return the engine to FedEx and let them
try.
The fact that you're understandably annoyed with some
flunky at FedEx doesn't strengthen your claim to the
engine. I *don't* think you're obliged to go to great
lengths to return the engine, but if you can't ID the owner
yourself, the next best chance of getting it where it's
supposed to be lies with FedEx. A call to someone who gives
a **** at FedEx requires less effort on your part than
you've made so far searching for the owner yourself.
Ned Simmons
Ned and all,
If you sent an engine off via fedEx and it didn't get where it was going
what would you do? I imagine that the person that got this engine will be
getting a call from FedEx trying to locate the package and avoid paying the
insurance.
LB