Student Finds Money, Luck Finds Owner

A Harvard student who found $580 in an MTA car last year lost it in a court decision that ended by fortuitously restoring the money to its owner.

Arno Szegvari '62, and his Radcliffe date Tara J. Dinkel '64, discovered the roll of money in a train at Park Street Station on Nov. 10, 1960, and turned it over to the MTA. Later an MTA employee claimed that he had found it, and Szegvari brought suit against the MTA to obtain the money by right of "finders keepers."

Jerome J. Sullivan, a resident of the West End, read of the court action in the newspaper and recognized the money in dispute to be his. Since he knew how the money was wrapped and was familiar with other details of the case, Superior Court Judge Edward J. Voke declared him rightful owner.

The MTA requested $100 to cover its lawyers' fees, but that compensation was refused by Judge Voke.

Szegvari's lawyer was Herbert Lewis.