Lotto gal's hubby likely to get a cut: expert

SELIM ALGAR, REUVEN FENTON and DAN MANGAN

Last Updated: 10:53 AM, February 1, 2011

Posted: 2:40 AM, February 1, 2011

Cowering like a debtor cornered by creditors, debt-ridden ironworker Jamie Eisel yesterday skulked at the front door of the wife he dumped -- no doubt dreaming of the $8 million check that popped in her mailbox last week and the hefty piece of it he's likely to collect.

Eisel -- who was the subject of $8,000 worth of claims by three banks and the state, according to court records -- walked out on his waitress wife, Patricia, last year, months before she won the Lotto prize, friends said.

He's likely to reap an unexpected reward.

"She's going to be splitting that money," predicted Marilyn Chinitz, a top marital lawyer at Blank Rome in Manhattan.

Victor Alcorn

HOUSE CALL: Jamie Eisel skulks yesterday outside the Long Island home of his estranged wife, Patricia, whose $8 million Lotto win was reported in The Post.

"I think it's a matter of how much."

That's because when the couple separated after nearly 13 years of marriage, she didn't bother to get a divorce -- or even file for divorce.

"Generally, monies that are from the lottery are deemed to be marital monies," Chinitz said. "It's subject to equitable distribution in New York."

Their relatively brief separation -- along with the possibility that Jamie has continued providing financial support to Patricia, 40, and their three young boys -- might lead a judge to award him close to half of the $8 million, Chinitz said.

The only way Patricia could keep all the money, said the lawyer, who's not representing either party, is if she could prove the Lotto ticket was bought with money exempt from the joint marital assets, such as an inheritance.

Despite that apparent good news, Jamie looked decidedly dour as he picked up his mail at the Long Beach, LI, home he had formerly shared with Patricia.

Jaime, who had been married before, declined to tell a Post reporter whether he planned on going after her windfall.

Between November 2009 and March 2010, four judgments against him were recorded in Nassau County Supreme Court. The debts, owed to two banks and the state, totaled slightly more than $8,200. It was not immediately clear if he paid off any or all of it.

Meanwhile, Patricia, who had been struggling to make ends meet by working in a local bar, has been in her native Ireland since collecting her Lotto check in New York last Thursday.

She hasn't been wearing her wedding ring.

Patricia's mood has been much improved since learning that the $8 she dropped on lottery tickets on Jan. 5 paid off with a $21.5 million winner -- which entitled her to an $8 million lump-sum payment after taxes.

"I knew on Jan. 6. I got nervous," she said in Ireland, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

"I didn't want any attention on my kids, and I wanted to think.

"The don't know what is going on, they just know Mammy is going home," she said. "I can't wait to go back and see them."

Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/check_may_be_in_mail_tsBlnpplAisHpMwcHcf8XP#ixzz1ClGUTvUg