It was only a month ago we brought you the news of the Kraftmaid lottery winners.
Well, it has now been revealed there is a potential 23rd member of the office pool – Edward Hairston.
Edward is now suing the $99 Million jackpot winners for a share of the pool’s winnings. He claims he is entitled to a share as he had previously been a member of the syndicate for 8 years.
Unfortunately Edward had been on sick leave at the time the syndicate won on 5th August, and hadn’t kept up with his payments to the pool.
The pool members told Edward that he was not eligible for a share of the winnings as he had not made any payments for 3 months while he was on sick leave due to an injury to his back.
So now he is suing them, and after an initial hearing Judge Eileen T. Gallagher has ordered the Lottery Commission to freeze $1.8 Million of the winnings in case he is successful with his case.
Edward’s lawyer, Howard Mishkind, claimed that the group had an ‘unwritten policy’ of covering missing payments for those who were unable to contribute due to illness or holidays. And indeed this had been done on one occasion previously.
Lawyers for the winning group say there is nothing personal about the decision – simply that Edward had not paid and was not therefore part of the group.
The case has been scheduled for a full hearing in December, when a jury will decide if the ’23rd member’ is entitled to a share of the pool’s winnings.
If you are a member of an office pool, make sure there are detailed written clauses in place in your lottery syndicate agreement for what happens in the event of payments being missed.
You can choose to include or exclude those who are behind with payments – just make sure it is written down to avoid complications.
Alternatively, join an online lottery syndicate and make your payments automatically by credit card or direct debit.
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