$90 MILLION BIG GAME WINNING TICKET

For over 15 years Atlanta Airport cabbies had a lottery pool where each paid $5 into the pool when the payoff got big enough, usually over 100 chances to win.  Many cabbies were in charge of the pool and there were unwritten rules. One of their tickets on a $90 Million Dollar payoff was drawn and the cabbies, who paid $5 toward the winning ticket, claimed sole ownership of that winning ticket and denied all other claims. My clients, who paid nothing toward the winning ticket draw, hired me to obtain their share of the winnings. Leading up to the drawn winning ticket, my clients paid $5 toward the previous three drawings that had small winnings. My theory was whereas the pool rules required the person in charge to purchase more tickets with the small winnings, he didn’t do that, he didn’t distribute the small winnings to anyone and he still had the small winnings tickets. The lawsuits I filed claimed that since you could not tell where the money came from to purchase the winning ticket and the pool breached and violated their rules, my clients were entitled to a share of the winnings.  The pool argued the oral pool rules did not require purchasing more tickets with the small winnings.  When the pool claimed my clients were not on the list of those who paid $5 toward the previous drawings, I claimed that the pool lists excluding my clients, was a forgery and a fraud. The jury returned a verdict for my clients, upholding the oral pool rules about small winnings, found the pool breached it’s rules to purchase more tickets with the small winnings, found my clients did indeed pay toward the previous drawings, found the pool’s list of cabbies that excluded my clients was forged, found the pool committed fraud and awarded my clients a share of the lottery winnings, with interest exceeds $2 Million Dollars.   

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