Adventures in government

Angelina Jolie has been careless. While she was touring the world collecting children, the actress left $21,633 in paychecks uncashed. The money from the Walt Disney Co. and other entertainment groups sat around so long, it has been turned over to the state of California and now is listed in the state's unclaimed property database under Angelina Jolie, Angelina Jolie-Thornton, and Angelina Jolie-Voight.

It would seem like the Walt Disney Co. and the government could easily find Jolie. Just open Us Weekly. But she has become the poster child in a dispute over California's $5 billion unclaimed property database. The right of the state of hold and sell unclaimed property goes back to feudal England, where tenant property often was escheated back to the Crown and became a regular source of government income.

The S.F. Chronicle showed the state Controller's office was using a 30-year-old computer with ancient software and did little to let people know they were owed money. People such as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is owed $50 from the First Trust of California, and Reece Witherspoon, owed $97.42 from Tiffany & Co. The right of the government to hold such assets is

The new state controller, John Chiang, is asking the Legislature for new money to search for owners and  authority to cast a wider net. Right now, the law denies him the right to contact individuals such as Jolie to tell them about their unclaimed property, Chiang's office said.  He has nevertheless ordered all stock shares to be held for up to two years before being sold, and the contents of safe-deposit boxes to be preserved for as long as two years.

Meanwhile, the U.S. District Count of Appeals is watching. The three-judge panel ruled this month in the case of Chris Lusby Taylor, a British citizens who held 52,000 shares in Intel. His shares were transfered to the state and were sold. He estimates that it cost him $3 million. This "seizure" of property prompted the court to threaten a takeover unless property owners are notified their assets are being held by the government, as required by the Constitution.

(Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)