108.245 Recovery of erroneous payments from fund.
(1) Except as provided in sub. (2m), the department may commence an action to preserve and recover the proceeds of any payment from the fund not resulting from a departmental error, including any payment to which the recipient is not entitled, from any transferee or other person that receives, possesses, or retains such a payment or from any account, including an account at any financial institution, resulting from the transfer, use, or disbursement of such a payment. The department may also commence an action to recover from a claimant the amount of any benefits that were erroneously paid to another person who was not entitled to receive the benefits because the claimant or the claimant's authorized agent divulged the claimant's security credentials to another person or failed to take adequate measures to protect the credentials from being divulged to an unauthorized person.
(2) The department may sue for injunctive relief to require the payee, transferee, or other person, including a financial institution, in possession of the proceeds from any payment from the fund to preserve the proceeds and to prevent the transfer or use of the proceeds upon showing that the payee, transferee, or other person that receives, possesses, or retains the proceeds is not entitled to receive, possess, or retain the proceeds pending the final order of the court directing disposition of the proceeds. Upon entry of a final order of the court directing the proceeds to be transferred to the department, the payee, transferee, or other person in possession of the proceeds shall transfer the proceeds to the department.
(2m) No action may be commenced under this section asserting any claim against a claimant unless the claimant has first been afforded his or her rights to contest the claim under s. 108.09.
(3) Except as provided in sub. (2m), the existence of an administrative or other legal remedy for recovery of a payment under sub. (1) or the failure of the department to exhaust any such remedy is not a defense to an action under sub. (1). A judgment entered by a court under this section may be recovered and satisfied under s. 108.225.
History: 2013 a. 36; 2013 a. 173 s. 33; 2013 a. 276.