The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel filed a motion in New York State Supreme Court yesterday for dismissal of a suit by a representative of Palestine Arab refugees who claimed that he had been unable to recover $69, 000 of $70, 000 he left in a safe in the hotel five years ago.
According to the legal papers, a man identified as Twafig Said Touquan, purportedly representative of a “Palestine-Jordanian refugee organization, ” checked in at the hotel on Christmas Eve, 1960 and deposited the $70, 000 in the hotel safe deposit box. In accordance with hotel procedures, he was given one key to the boc and the hotel retained another. Both keys are needed to open such boxes.
In the first week in January, according to the suit by Touquan, he withdrew $1, 000. On January 18, he claimed, he sought to withdraw the balance and was told by the hotel that someone else had opened the box and taken the $69, 000. Hotel officials said that the hotel assumed that if another individual had a key, it was assumed he had been given it properly by the original recipient. Touquan filed his summons and complaint for recovery of the $69, 000 in January 1961. According to the hotel, he has taken no action since.
A hotel spokesman said today that the statute of limitations for such suits had expired in the Touquan case and the hotel wanted the case removed from the legal books. John Morris, attorney for the hotel, filed the motion to dismiss the suit. His motion was set for a hearing on July 26.
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