BBB VALUE SERVICES, INC. VS. TREASURER, STATE OF NEW NEW JERSEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, ETC.BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. VS. TREASURER, STATE OF NEW JERSEY, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, ETC.(NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, UNCLAIMED PROPERTY ADMINI

In these back-to-back appeals, Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (BB&B) and its subsidiary BBB-VSI appeal the denial by the Treasury Department's Unclaimed Property Administration (UPA) of their claim for a refund of the value of certain unclaimed merchandise return certificates. These certificates were provided by BB&B and BBB-VSI to customers who returned merchandise without a receipt. They could only be redeemed for other merchandise or services, and not for cash. The court concludes that for BB&B certificates issued between July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2010, the unused balances of these certificates should have been refunded by the UPA because they were not "property" within the scope of New Jersey's Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, N.J.S.A. 46:30B-1 to -109 (UUPA). UPA's denial of a refund is reversed. For certificates issued by BBB-VSI from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, the certificates are not "credit memoranda" but rather constitute "stored-value cards" under the plain language of the UUPA as it was amended in 2010. The UPA erred in not refunding the value of these certificates because they were prematurely remitted by BBB-VSI.