A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled members of a work lottery pool aren’t entitled to part of a $2-million win.
“Winning the lottery should be a happy event. In this case, sadly, it has ruined relationships,” Justice Liliane Bantourakis said in a newly released Jan. 10 decision.
Bantourakis said the parties to the case were members of a workplace lottery pool.
On Aug. 15, 2022, defendant Mandeep Singh Maan purchased a BC/49 lotto ticket with winning numbers that yielded the $2-million prize.
He denied it was bought with the group funds, a denial the judge agreed with.
“Though the plaintiffs may feel that they have a moral entitlement to a share of the winnings, they have not established any legal entitlement,” Bantourakis said.
The plaintiffs, Balvinder Kaur Nagra, Sukhjinder Singh Sidhu, Binipal Singh Sanghera and Jeevan Pedan, alleged the ticket was a group one in which they should share equally.
“However, Mr. Maan says the winnings are his alone,” Bantourakis wrote.
She said the group pooled money to buy tickets from at least 2021 to 2022. Various people would make the purchases.
“They disagree on how often they bought tickets as a group, whether the purchases they did make during the relevant period always involved the same group of five people, what kinds of lottery tickets they normally bought, and whether photos of the group tickets were usually sent around once they were bought,” the judge said.
“There was no written agreement, and they kept no records other than some WhatsApp messages and about 16 photos of lottery tickets.”
Nagra, Sidhu, Sanghera and Pedan said they had an agreement with Maan to pool money together for lottery tickets twice a week, every week beginning in 2021.
Each of the five contributed $10 toward the group purchase on both Mondays and Fridays, for a total of $50 of group funds on Mondays and $50 of group funds on Fridays.
“If a group member was absent or did not have cash on hand, they could contribute later and other group members would cover for them if necessary,” the judge said. “That is, participation was understood and assumed.”
The plaintiffs alleged the money the group collected on Mondays went towards buying tickets on Monday or Tuesday in time for the Tuesday Lottomax draw and the Wednesday Lotto 6/49 and BC/49 draws. The money collected on Fridays was used to buy tickets in time for the Friday Lotto Max draw and Saturday Lotto 6/49 and BC/49 draws.
“Initially, the group mostly bought Lotto Max tickets,” Bantourakis said. “However, the plaintiffs say that by at least sometime in 2022, they had agreed that the $50 pot be used to buy $20 worth of Lotto Max tickets, $20 worth of Lotto 6/49 tickets, and $10 worth of BC/49 tickets. I will refer to this as the standard package.”
Maan, however, said there was no regular group, that any lottery purchases with coworkers were irregular, infrequent, and mostly for Lotto Max, not BC/49, as they were inclined to pool their funds when the Lotto Max jackpot got high.
Maan bought the winning ticket from a Langley Chevron gas station for the Aug. 17, 2022, BC/49 draw.
He spent $12.
On Aug. 18, 2022, Maan learned the BC/49 ticket he had bought was a winner.
“He did not tell his coworkers of this good fortune,” Bantourakis said. “Instead, they learned of his win 11 days later when a photo of him holding a two-million-dollar BCLC cheque was posted online.”
A lot of the case turned on the credibility of witnesses, Bantourakis said.
She ruled the $12 purchase was not consistent with a group purchase.
“I find that the $12 amount is more consistent with an individual purchase.”
