Can My Comapny Sue us For the Winnings?

Reply #18

Littleoldlady — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:56:58 GMT

It is easier just to go to a copy store and make your copies. don't fool around with work email, copy machine,etc. Say you do form a pool and distribute tickets (copies) on COMPANY time? Say you lose..then it all comes back to bite you on the butt when you get your pink slip for using company resources without authorization..

Reply #17

Captain Lotto — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:46:07 GMT

A Lottery ticket is a bearers instrument. Only people who make a claim on the actual ticket would be included. Claims will not be paid on copies. Therefore, it's unlikely that a company would have any legal claim on a scanned copy.

Operating a players group in the office should only take place with the consent and knowledge of management, who are often in on the group. It's true that are sometimes disputes about who has a claim to a big win. Make sure to have clear and well documented rules... [ More ]

Reply #16

Stack47 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:42:44 GMT

Any company can fire an employee for violating the conditions of employment and sue them for damages. If a company allows personal use of company time and property, I don't see what's different about using it to play the lottery. If the policy is no personal use, there's your answer.

If a certain amount personal use is allowed, to be safe, ask your boss to join the pool. It's possible he could sue for part of the winnings because in exchange for allowing you to use his company's time and prop... [ More ]

Reply #15

justxploring — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:59:58 GMT

I thought about this a little more and maybe everyone would lose!

Let's say a new employee signs an agreement that he won't use company equipment for personal use and signed other documents about proper conduct in the workplace, which might mention anything from sexual harassment, use of profanity, dress codes and gambling to showing up for work on time sober. By scanning email lottery tickets, isn't this person breaking the contract?

So then the Lottery can say the winning ticket is voi... [ More ]

Reply #14

crystaltips — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:47:15 GMT

They could fire me all they want if I won a share of that jackpot

Reply #13

KY Floyd — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:57:17 GMT

How much money is involved only matters in so far as the incentiveto sue. It doesn't do anything at all to make for a strongercase. If you and a coworker use company time to make plans to goout to dinner, do you think the company is entitled to some of yourdinner? Planning alottery pool is no different than anything elsecoworkers discuss on company time. The company could potentialy dockyou for time spent on personal matters, or even fire you if the offensewas serious enough, but they have no cl... [ More ]

Reply #12

gsc5 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:12:47 GMT

KY Floyd, its not about the color of someone's tie or shirt. Its about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Its about employee's using company time and property to make money. I have no doubt that a company would get a healthy cut of the winnings.

If this is done during lunch hour or after work, off the clock. I don't think it would be a problem

Reply #11

KY Floyd — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:45:55 GMT

gsc5 is right that they could sue you. They could also sueyou because your tie clashes with your shirt, or becauseit's nicer than your boss' tie, too. What matters is how likelythey would be to sue you, and how good their case would be.If all you did was use company email (and presumably companypaper, and toner),and used paid time to do personal things, they mighthave a decent chance to recover their actual losses, but thatsuit wouldn't be about any prize you won. They couldpotentially fire you,... [ More ]

Reply #10

gsc5 — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:41:12 GMT

Hell yes they could sue you, it wouldn't make any difference whether they had a leg to stand on, or not. Before it was over, you'd be happy to give them whatever share they wanted, just so you could get yours.

I am sure you'd make, both sides, attorneys very rich.

Reply #9

tntea — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:32:38 GMT

I would use the home scanner and hand deliver the copies at break times or before/after work hours.

Actually that is what I do...

Reply #8

chasingadream — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:18:15 GMT

I don't think they can sue you for any of the money but speaking from personal experience I can tell you that using company email for any other purpose than company business is grounds for termination.

I worked for Ford Motor Credit and used the company email to chat back and forth with coworkers on other floors. Well one day we were gossiping about the call center manager and somehow HR got wind of it. All of a sudden I was sent home for 3day on paid leave. When I was called to come back in... [ More ]

Reply #7

thatguy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:53:02 GMT

We are such a large company that our location makes up only about 5% of the total employees so you never really know what could come out of legal in HQ. I get the feeling we are OK because lost revenues coming from the bad press I would assume would be way more than $100M in a year anyway. Speaking of wasting company time... Im getting back to work, thanks for the replys everyone.

Reply #6

ThatScaryChick — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:48:51 GMT

I don't think your company would have a leg to stand on if they did try to sue you. Unless you are using the companies money to buy the tickets they can't claim the tickets are theirs.

Reply #5

justxploring — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:47:00 GMT

Re: scanning tickets

Are you scanning tickets and emailing them to people out of state? If so, is this legal? Good question! You can't use the mail to buy tickets for and accept money from people across state lines, but can you use email? Then is the contract binding? Many years ago I belonged to a company pool in Chicago and I lived in NH. I never thought about it.

Reply #4

thatguy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:38:22 GMT

Rj0h,

I don't have access to the company Outlook system from home and people want their numbers before COB Friday yet many wait until Fri morning to put the money in. It sounds like you might have been micro managed (or are a micro manager). We have great employee morale and in my 5 years here have never heard of people that have been reprimanded for email related incidents, even our tenured senior level managers/directors are a part of this pool.

Reply #3

justxploring — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:33:32 GMT

I agree with both of the above comments.

Chances are they wouldn't have a case, as long as you didn't use company money to purchase the tickets! However, if you are worried that it has the type of management that would frown upon such activity, why are you doing it?

Edit: Just saw your comment below. Now your question doesn't make sense. If upper management is involved, then why are you concerned? I know a lot of people who use computers at work. Probably half the people posting here che... [ More ]

Reply #2

RJOh — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:59:22 GMT

Why would you work on a personal project on company time and use company equipment to do it? Don't you have a computer, scanner/printer and an internet connection at home

Reply #1

Unreasonable — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:56:15 GMT

I am not a lawyer, but I do not think the company has any claim at all on your lottery pool winnings.

What they do have control over is use of company owned assets like email and scanning equipment. They cannot stake a claim on the winnings, but they can fire you for misuse of company property. The email system is company owned and you using it for personal use is not really acceptable. There are probably many precedents that would further impede a case, especially if many people at your comp... [ More ]

Can My Comapny Sue us For the Winnings?

thatguy — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:42:57 GMT

So I am organizing a lotto group buy for about 40 people at a fortune 500 company for tomorrows $270M MM drawing. One of the members told me that by distributing the scanned lottery numbers via company email they can sue for part or all of the winnings. I Googled for other similar stories but found nothing, also something like this seems that it would villify the company when the press got wind of it and be bad for business. Is there any truth to this or is he just paranoid