Game officials pay

[rightcall55]

An organization had a basketball event that involved a specified number of games. A group of game officials agreed to work the games for a specified amount per game. The organization gave one person a check for the aggregate total of all game officials fees for amount of games played, which was the correct amount. Each official is an independent contractor who presents a separate count of what he/she is due. The sum of what they are claiming in in excess of what they could have possibly worked. Immediately after the event. the game officials were all notified in writing by email (3 times) that it is impossible for the claims to be correct. They were sent a detail of what each was claiming and schedule of the games played. They were asked to check schedules and help resolve the discrepancies. Only 4 of 20 responded in any way of the requests to verify. However all maintain the original request which remains in excess. There is no written document as to who worked what, but it is impossible to be the aggregate sum claimed. The game officials not responding made it impossible to determine whom is correctly owed what. Is payer responsible to pay the excess claim or the do officials have to give a proper accounting? It has not been paid yet. Is there any type of fraud here?
Since then there have been demanding and threatening calls such as

"Pay by a particular date or We go to plan B"(sent by email)

" I stole the money but, You just have to bite the bullet and pay" (sent by email)

"We will call your employer and tell them, You have not paid us and owe us"-(supervisor mentioned)

Some have spread word of not being paid (never mentioning the overpayment)

Some of threats or demands were maid by email

 

[mightymoose]

First of all, your emails may not count as notification in "writing". Try putting something on paper and sending it with a confirmed delivery or receipt.

Second, if the parties involved can't work out the dispute, then that is exactly what the court is there for. Get yourself organized and present a clear argument when the time comes.

What became of the initial check that you gave to the one person? Was it cashed? Was it distributed to the others?

If there is no written contract that they can present to the court that clearly shows the terms of employment and the amount to be paid, then they likely have a weak argument.

My concern is that you say each official is an individual contractor- and that makes me wonder if the person you gave the check to was authorized to receive and disburse the payments to the others. Were you contracted with each official, or with the one person? Did the other officials contract with the one that you paid?

 

[rightcall55]

One person received the check for the aggregate sum. Check was made out to him. Check was cashed. The officials are claiming that they worked more games than actually existed. The check was in the correct amount. Some of the officials who presented their claim were paid same day. Then the excessive charge was discovered when the remainder of the claims came in the next day. No one was paid after the excess claim was discovered.

All officials are independent contractors and agree to work for a per game fee. They are paid individually for the games they worked and are responsible for reporting and paying taxes. The person who cashed the check was authorized to pay them. They are demanding payment individually (the collective claims are in excess of what it could possibly be)

 

[Disabled Vet]

Hmmm... 1st of all shame on the person in charge of the officials. As a Licensed basketball, football, wrestling, baseball official myself. There is a place inside of each score book for the official to sign or the score keeper can put their name in. You can check and see if that was done. Or attempt to go back and retrace the amount of games. Include this information in the letter you mail out. If you think there was 85 games and your officials are claiming 105 point that out. I very seriously doubt that you used Licensed Officials because most of us go by the motto "It's all for the Kids" so we don't care about the money.

 

[mightymoose]

Hmm... is it possible that the person you gave the check to did not properly pay the others? Perhaps they got shorted?

If you paid the total for all games and gave it to the one person who was responsible for divvying up the money among the other officials, then their complaint is with that person. So long as you can show you paid the correct amount for the number of officials per game and that the person you gave the check to was responsible for paying the other officials, rather than you paying each individually, then I think you are likely in the clear.

Those who are demanding that you pay need to direct their attention to the person you gave the money to. If you did something out of the ordinary and that person is not typically responsible for paying the other officials, then you might be in a bit of a jam- however if that is the case, and that person cashed the check and did not divide it among the other officials, then perhaps there is some theft or fraud involved here.