California to Sue RTC Over Unclaimed Deposits : Thrifts: At issue is $64 million seized from accounts at failed S&Ls; in the state.

California officials expect to file a lawsuit today in federal district court in Los Angeles, seeking the return of $64 million in unclaimed deposits at failed California savings and loans controlled by the federal Resolution Trust Corp.

State Controller Gray Davis said Sunday that the action seeks to protect California consumers who may not have quickly claimed deposits from insolvent thrifts. Currently, the federal government claims as its property all funds that depositors do not claim within three months after regulators notify them that an S&L; has failed.

“It’s grand larceny,” Davis said in an interview. “The purpose of the RTC is to take over failed S&Ls;, not to rip off the depositors. The money doesn’t belong to the RTC, it belongs to California depositors who have already earned it and by fate happened to have deposited it in an institution that failed.”

Under California law, unclaimed or inactive accounts at any financial institution must be turned over to the state controller’s office, which then attempts to locate the rightful owners. Account holders or their heirs can then claim their money at any time.

Davis argues that unclaimed accounts--even at failed thrifts seized by the federal government--should be subject to the same law.

While several other states have contested the RTC’s jurisdiction over unclaimed S&L; accounts, California is the first state to sue the RTC on the issue. Davis expects other states to follow California’s lead.

Neither RTC officials nor their lawyers could be reached for comment Sunday.

Davis’ office estimates that about 100,000 Californians have lost an average of $700 each because they did not claim their money in the time allotted by the RTC. That number will continue to grow as more savings and loans are projected to fail in the coming year.

In many cases, Davis says, people are never notified that they must claim their accounts. While depositors may be aware that their money has been transferred to another institution, they assume it can be left there until they want to make a withdrawal. But when they try, they may be in for a rude surprise.

That’s what happened to Tony Rodriguez, of Los Angeles, a retired United Auto Workers representative whose $24,951 account was transferred when the RTC took over Gibraltar Savings & Loan in March, 1989, and later sold it to Security Pacific. When Rodriguez went to Security Pacific to make a withdrawal, he was told he no longer had access to his money, according to Davis.

The state controller’s office negotiated with the RTC on Rodriguez’s behalf, and the federal agency agreed to return his money, which Davis is to present to him at a press conference today. But others are not so lucky. Joseph and Geraldine Dudzinski of Torrance are trying to recover $6,917 from their former Gibraltar Savings account, but the RTC has not yet said if it will honor their claim.

But even if the state wins its bid to gain control of the unclaimed accounts, not all consumers will take advantage of it.

Last year, the controller’s office took in about $200 million in inactive accounts and unclaimed funds, but only about $70 million was claimed.