## Facts

- Joe Terry and David Stocks were assisting with renovations at a hotel owned by A.D. Lock (through Lock Hospitality, Inc.) in Conway, Arkansas.
- While working in a guest room, Terry and Stocks discovered a cardboard box concealed inside the ceiling near an air vent.
- The box contained old currency in various denominations; it appeared dusty and aged.
- Lock was present when the box was found and took it to his office.
- Terry and Stocks reported the discovery to the police.
- The money was counted and determined to have a face value of $38,310.
- Terry and Stocks filed suit in chancery court seeking equitable relief, including an injunction preventing Lock from spending the money and an order directing that the money be paid to them (or secured under court control).
- The trial court treated the currency as property intentionally placed in the ceiling and not accidentally dropped, and concluded it was mislaid property.
- Based on that classification, the trial court awarded the right to possess the money to Lock as the owner of the premises where it was found, rather than to Terry and Stocks as finders.
- Terry and Stocks appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the chancery court had subject-matter jurisdiction to decide the dispute where the finders sought injunctive relief and trust-like control over the found money.
2. Whether the concealed currency was mislaid property, giving the premises owner the superior right to possess it as against the finders.
3. Whether any claim that the case belonged in circuit court because an adequate remedy at law existed was waived by failing to seek transfer.

## Decision

- The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed.
- The request for injunctive relief and court control over the money supplied a sufficient equitable basis for chancery jurisdiction.
- Once equity jurisdiction attached, the chancery court could resolve the related disputes under the clean-up doctrine.
- Any argument that plaintiffs had an adequate remedy at law and that the case should have been heard in circuit court was treated as a forum objection and was waived by failure to move to transfer.
- On the merits, the court upheld the trial court’s classification of the money as mislaid property and the award of possession to Lock as premises owner.

## Legal Principles

- Subject-matter jurisdiction is assessed from the pleadings and cannot be created by agreement of the parties; it may be raised at any time.
- A chancery court that properly acquires jurisdiction for an equitable purpose may decide connected legal matters under the clean-up doctrine.
- When there is a tenable connection between the equitable claim and the remaining claims, objections generally concern the proper forum, not the court’s power to hear the case.
- A party who contends equity should not proceed because there is an adequate remedy at law must timely seek transfer; otherwise, the objection is waived.
- Mislaid property is property intentionally placed in a location and later forgotten; as between a finder and the premises owner, the premises owner has the better right to possess it, holding it for the true owner.

## Conclusion

Terry v. A.D. Lock held that chancery court could hear a dispute over cash found hidden in a hotel ceiling because the plaintiffs sought equitable relief to restrain use of the money and secure it under court control; the court also affirmed that the intentionally concealed currency was mislaid property, so the hotel owner, not the employee finders, had the superior right to possess it, and any request to proceed at law was waived by failing to move to transfer.


Terry v. A.D. Lock, 275 S.W.3d 202 (2001)