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A man in Ontario, Canada sued 24 of his coworkers for not including him in their $50 million lottery win because he was on vacation.
The man, 54-year-old Christopher Bates, claimed that he was a regular player in the Bombardier plant employee lottery pool and, in fact, was actually the one who started it.
So, when each player was awarded more than $1.9 million as part of the win in 2011 and he was excluded, he decided to sue.
The group argued that the lottery pool was set up as a “no pay, no play” situation and he wasn’t entitled to any of the money from the lottery win since he didn’t technically play.
Bates wasn’t the only employee to claim they should have been included, but all but two of them, including his was rejected by the court, reports the Mirror.
As a result, two of the shares in the lottery win were held by the court until a final ruling was made.
Last week, a civil trial was held and when the group leader Sherif Morsi was asked why Bates wasn’t included in the drawing and subsequent lottery win, he said that another player still owed him money so he wasn’t going to add people to the pool who hadn’t paid.
“When somebody plays every time for almost a year, and just happens to be away one week, the other members of the group have a duty to that person to treat them fairly,” Bates’ lawyer Michael Cochrane told the media. “That’s all he’s asking — ‘treat me fairly.'”
On the second day of the scheduled 10 day trial, a confidential settlement was reached.
Saul Glober, the lawyer representing the 24 workers, said his clients were happy with the results and that the 12-year-long battle had finally been resolved.
The Sun reports that Cochrane pointed out to any other lottery players, “You need to pay attention. Just throwing $5 in an envelope isn’t enough.”
He also added that the person running the pool needs to be aware of their responsibilities and players need to pay on time and know exactly what happens in advance if the group has a lucky lottery win.