Who didn't know this was coming ?

This was a joke here at LP immediately following their win.  There were those who joked that someone who normally participated but didn't for whatever reason would sue to try to break in and gain a piece of the action.  The truth is, its sad. 

Yeah, I expect that with my lottery club here at work too. The thing is, I had them ALL sign contracts before hand, and it clearly states that if they miss a payment or are late, they are cut out. End of story. But I expect that some of them that dropped out will try and sue me if we win the thing.

"I treated him like a son, always lecturing him," said Joyce Onori, 60, one of the winners. "I would not have expected this from him."

I would not want to be one of this woman's children.  There is a sense of animosity in her statement.

Office politics and personality clashes can easily create he said/she said situations.  I think this group of winners could all make their lives a lot easier by participating in a confidential settlement and each of them giving him $10,000, if there is sufficient reason to believe that he would have participated had he been at work that day. 

I'm not saying people should give away their money willy-nilly if someone makes a frivolous claim, but it's a shame that being a winner doesn't always bring out the best in people. 

A lottery jackpot is too big and irresistable. Even when you know you don't deserve a penny of it why not file a nuisance lawsuit with a shyster lawyer and see if you can extract some money, maybe they'll pay to make you go away? Worth a try, isn't it? After all, they can afford to pay you $50,000 without putting a crimp in their millionaire lifestyles.

tg636-

I feel you on this.  I cannot believe that anybody participating in a Jackpot that big even if they didn't go to work that day, would not have secured their place in the drawing.  You hit the nail on the head with this persons reasoning.  They want to come away with something; all of their friends and co-workers probably know they were apart of that winners circle and are egging them on for a piece. 

I wouldn't pay them one dime if they sued me.  Now if they had come correct and appealed to the grace and mercy of a person, I wouldn't throw anything their way, I would give them a nice piece of money that they could enjoy, live on and invest as friend.  But don't sue me.  You'll get ZERO

It isn't that easy to file a frivolous lawsuit these days.  Let's say Person X wants to file a groundless suit. I don't know about California, but in Oregon a lawyer can have sanctions imposed on him/her for filing what he/she knows to be a worthless claim.  In addition, losing a "frivolous" suit subjects Person X to being sued in turn by the person(s) whom Person X originally sued, which means that in addition to losing the case, Person X can be hit with a judgment for all court costs, all attorneys' fees, and perhaps punitive damages for filing the suit if there is reason to believe they knew that there was absolutely nothing to substantiate their case.  That then puts the attorney for Person X in jeopardy of being sued for malpractice, since he/she should have known better than to file a meritless suit on Person X's behalf to begin with. 

It all comes down to, what will a jury of 12 reasonable and prudent people believe (or a judge). 

simply amazing. that's like saying "i was gonna buy Microsoft or Google Shares the day of the IPO; but i was busy. So can i please have my brokerage account reflect the purchase and deposit millions in my bank account" lol that dude has some big balls. i hope they give him ZERO

and tonight's my night!!

I guess the court will think the fact that he worked in the same office where there was a lottery pool will give his claim some merit.  That should protect his lawyer, who after all only knows what the client tells him, but his lawyer also wants a chunk of lottery change and is aware of the gray areas of malpractice. I'm sure neither the loser nor his lawyer really want to to go to court where every other person in the pool will testify he wasn't in the pool and every person who who worked in the office but wasn't in the pool will testify they heard no mention of him being in the pool prior to the drawing.  The loser will will lose in court, but he will win if the winners give in and pay up to end his harrassment.  If this happened to me, I would much rather pay my $50,000 to the best and most vicious lawyer I could find to fight back against this guy and make his life as miserable as possible (and set an example in case anyone else was thinking of trying the same thing) rather than give in and pay him.

IT'S OFFICIALLY FRIDAY.......HAVING READ THIS STORY, HOW COULD YOU DOUBT IT....LOLOOL

12/16

WELL, WELL, WELL,  ....We as LP members all knew this was coming....in fact in some of my Postings I indicated, that if this person is a "regular player in the office poole" that someone should have either called him to ask if he wanted to be included,   or simply give him a piece of the pie as opposed to waiting for him to take them to court, because I could smell the Lawsuit before he filed it......

By the time this ugliness plays out, it will be months before they finally collect their winnings and the Lawyers for both sides, will end up claiming a good portion of the $$$$$$ as legal fees. I cannot believe that the "poole" didn't expect this to happen, no matter what "they claim" he said.

Maybe he got the idea from reading the posts on this forum...

If you give him a piece of the pie when he didn't deserve it because he didn't pay into the pool the specific day tickets were purchased which did in fact win  .... then what's going to stop the rest of the company from wanting "their share"???????????  It's a rehash of "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too because I was around when you got it."

Seems that both courts and jury's are going to have to come to terms with personal property rights ..... exactly where they begin and where they don't extend to.

This exact same thing ocurred about two years ago in NJ where the Sate Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of the planitiff. The guy missed work the day the pool money was due and the pool subsequently hit the Pick 6 for 35 million dollars. Pools have  to start being more legal and formal now; hire a lawyer before your pool hits and draw up pool rules and  have a pool contract where everyone in  the pool agrees to the rules. This is getting ridiculous...avoid pools, or get a Lottery Pool Contract written up that would be binding. (Avoid pools.)