Co-Workers Sue For Share Of Lotto Jackpot
Published: December 24, 2008
Updated: January 6, 2009
TROY, Ohio—Four co-workers filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the winners of a $207 million Mega Millions jackpot, saying the others didn’t keep a promise to share the winnings.
The four said they were regular players in a Piqua city workers’ lottery pool but didn’t contribute toward the lucky ticket because they were out of the office.
The plaintiffs claim all players had agreed they would share equally if they ever hit the jackpot, according to the lawsuit filed in Miami County Common Pleas Court. They are asking for $41 million.
A message seeking comment was left with John Hemm, an attorney representing some of the winners.
Fourteen employees of the city of Piqua and one relative of a city worker claimed their prize last week from the Dec. 12 drawing. Each will each receive a check for approximately $6.3 million.
The group purchased its winning ticket, a $5 wager using the Lottery’s auto-pick feature, at a Kroger store in Piqua, about 30 miles north of Dayton.
It was the Ohio’s third-largest jackpot win since joining the multi-state game in 2002.
The employees had been pooling their money for about five years although not everyone participated in every drawing.
The four who filed the lawsuit - Doug Harter, Israel Carnes, Tammy K. Wright and Jon Litchfield - said that they had contributed to tickets bought in the Dec. 9 drawing and that some of the cash winnings from that drawing were used to purchase tickets for the drawing that produced the big winner.
The four said they had an oral agreement and informal partnership to share the winnings.
Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for the latest news and information.
To submit a story idea or news tip, e-mail
.
MORE: NBC 4 Local News | Local Crime News
NBC 4 SPORTS: Sports News, Video
NBC 4 POLITICS: Headlines, Interactives & Video
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
I am finding this article very informative. I have just started a pool like this at my employer with my co-workers. We have everything written down for each week: everyone’s names who put in for the week, copies of tickets and the winning numbers posted along with the names of the people who put in for the draw. I think that if these 4 people REALLY did pool the winnings from the previous week and had someone put in their share into the purchase of the actual million-dollar ticket, then they should be entitled to their share. Absolutely. One of my rules was, if a ticket happens to be a winner, and the winnings are less than $100, those monies would be put into the ticket for the next weeks draw. But now I am thinking, maybe not if this is what could potentially happen. I have to think about this.
OH well these four co workers should have left there 5 dollars with somebody there at work,Your heard the old saying you move you lose.I could live real good on 4.9 million.
It’s too bad this had to happen. If I were one of the 14 winners I’d pay each non-paying participant $10,000 to go away. A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s not written on; this isn’t Survivor.
How in the world would you expect those 12 people to be able to survive if they had to split up the winnings with 4 more people?!? Afterall instead of getting 6.3 million each they would then only get about 4.9 million and everyone knows how hard it would be to live on 4.9 million dollars for the rest of your life instead of having 6.3 million….
Advertisement