[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Spreadin’ the welf.

[pnh102]

By the time all the court proceedings are done the winnings will have been spent on legal fees.

[buccaneer81]

Twenty of us play Mega Millions at work. Everybody pays on time, on a monthly basis. Eight bucks. Same 20 players for four years now.

[SIDENET]

The four said they were out of the office and unavailable to contribute to the office pool for the Dec. 12 drawing.

[KarlInOhio]

The four further claim they joined with the others in a pool for the Dec. 9 Mega Millions drawing from which some cash winnings allegedly were then used to purchase tickets for the Dec. 12 drawing.

If true, they have an argument. Now they just have that little tricky bit of proving it.

[HamiltonJay]

An oral contract is worth the paper its written on.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

This has happened before, I wonder if anyone has ever won a share? I wouldn’t be surprised if they got an offer to settle for some small amount, maybe $10,000, just to get them to go away.

[jagusafr]

“had an oral agreement”

Per the Statute of Frauds, all agreements in excess of $500 must be in writing to be enforceable. Call the Waaaaahhhmbulance.

Colonel, USAFR

[Michael.SF.]

The four said they were out of the office and unavailable to contribute to the office pool for the Dec. 12 drawing

They couldn't have paid before they left?

Sorry pal, you don't pay, you do not get your share.

[OrioleFan]

And the winner is: ..... the lawyers!

[az.b1bbomberfxr]

And under Obama’s “Wealth Redistribution” policy, they’ll probably win.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Seems to me the equitable resolution would be to give the four plaintiffs their share of the winnings from the Dec. 9th drawing...whatever amount that may have been. That would fulfill the terms of the original oral contract.
Because they were not in the office and unable to contribute to the purchase of tickets for the Dec. 12th drawing, they should not be eligible to share in the winnings of that drawing. The winners were under no obligation to seek them out to get their contribution for the purchase of tickets for the winning drawing on the 12th. That's my ruling as the Honorable Judge Bloody Sam Roberts.

Now, having said that, if I were one of the winners of the drawing on the 12th, I'd be inclined to offer each of the plaintiffs a very large sum in order to settle the dispute out of court...depending of course on how much my share was. If my share came out to anything like double digit millions, I'd offer them each a million and ask them, "Can't we just make this go away? I mean...it's a million bucks."

[RobinOfKingston]

Nothing breaks up a good friendship quite like money.

[GreenLanternCorps]

The pool was sloppy in how they handled the money.

I’m in a lottery pool at work. Each month we pay $1.00 per drawing for that month (8 or 9 dollars a month per player). The membership does fluctuate so if we have winnings in a month that a used to buy additional tickets, those are purchased and tracked separately based on the previous months group.