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DETROIT — The Meli family once ran a Flint warehouse that kept perishable goods from spoiling. Now it seems their money — nearly $200,000 — is stuck in storage.
The state of Michigan is refusing to give the cash to 80-year-old Pauline Meli of Traverse City, who claims it comes from an insurance policy that belonged to Flint Cold Storage.
But that business is out of business. Meli can't easily prove she was an owner, and two courts have ruled against her.
The latest defeat came this week when the Michigan Court of Appeals said Flint Cold Storage can't be a party suing the state because the business was dissolved in 1975.
"This is a big deal. It's still going to be a struggle but we don't intend to back down," lawyer Ezra Goldman said. "This is a widow in her 80s and they've dragged her through this for 2 1/2 years. The state is fighting and fighting."
The dispute centers on an insurance policy purchased decades ago on the life of Meli's husband, Vincent. The buyer was their business, Flint Cold Storage.
In 2000, MetLife Inc. converted from a mutual insurer owned by its policyholders to a publicly traded company. That meant policyholders were entitled to money — $188,679.99 in this case.
But MetLife couldn't find Flint Cold Storage, presumably because it was no longer around. So in 2003 the money was sent to the state of Michigan, which is the custodian of lost or forgotten assets such as dividends, old bank accounts and stock.
When Meli learned about it, she provided the state Treasury Department with records, including the company's annual report from 1975, showing she, her husband and their son Angelo Meli had been officers of Flint Cold Storage.
The state, however, rejected a request for the money in 2007. It said Flint Cold Storage no longer existed. The state also noted that Meli couldn't produce documents about the family's ownership in the 1970s. Being a company officer doesn't indicate ownership.
An Ingham County judge subsequently ruled for the state, saying Flint Cold Storage had no right to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit because the company was gone. The appeals court agreed.
"But this does not necessarily foreclose the possibility that ... historic shareholders may be able to claim and successfully recover the $188,679.99," a three-judge panel said this week.
But Meli doesn't have records to show she was an owner of Flint Cold Storage along with her husband and mother-in-law, both deceased. And that's a problem.
"We need to have appropriate documentation," Treasury Department spokesman Terry Stanton said Thursday. "Shy of that, the system could be fraught with fraud."
Goldman said Meli will continue to pursue her claim.
"The bottom line is she knows it's her money," he said.
