Nine people are suing 19 Bell Canada employees who won a $50-million Lotto Max jackpot on New Year's Eve, arguing in a statement of claim filed Friday they should have been included in a pool they'd played in before, and they were never properly told they'd been excluded.
The nine claimants, all Bell employees, argue the 19 original claimants should have known they'd want to be part of that day's lottery pool.
"The whole arrangement in the group as you see from the statement of claim was such that they could pay up later. They were all partners," said lawyer Marek Tufma. "They were all part of the same group for a long period of time."
But Saul Glober, a lawyer representing the 19 original claimants, said there's no truth to the "bald allegations," and said the assertion that people should have been included even if they didn't pay for their tickets makes no sense.
"You don't need to be a lawyer, I think, to appreciate that if you pay your money, you're in; if you don't, you're not."
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation divided the $50-million prize into 30 shares on Monday, paying the 19 original employees $1,667,915.53 each and putting the remaining $18,347,070.83 into civil court and leaving both sides to fight over it. At the time, the OLG said there were a possible 11 people planning to make a claim over the winnings; Mr. Tufman is only representing nine, and says he doesn't know if two more people will come forward on their own.
According to the statement of claim, all the employees started participating in office lottery pools at the Toronto-area call centre beginning in early 2010.
"The rules of the partnership provided that each of the partners would contribute an agreed upon weekly amount towards purchase of lottery tickets … and that the partners who failed to contribute on a specific occasion or occasions due to a temporary absence for any reason, would be permitted and expected to make their required contribution at a later time," the statement reads.
The claimants state that at first, one woman - Natalie Damianidis - was responsible for collecting the cash and purchasing tickets, but that at one point several different people took on that organizational role.
Leading up to the Dec. 31, 2010, Lotto Max draw, says Mr. Tufman, seven of the nine plaintiffs gave their money to different people they thought were organizing that day's draw. Two others tried to give Ms. Damianidis money, according to the statement, "only to have the monies returned to them with a cryptic advice that enough people have already paid, without any further explanation or notice of the intention to unilaterally dissolve the partnership."
The nine plaintiffs are claiming a share of the $50-million, in addition to $2.7-million for breach-of-contract damages and $4.7-million in punitive damages.
Mr. Glober said he plans to meet with his clients in the next week and file a statement of defence shortly thereafter.
"If you and I buy a ticket a year ago together, and now I buy a ticket with my sister-in-law and win, I don't know if that makes you my partner," he said. "I suppose you could say a lot of things, but generally I think if you pay your money, you play the game. I can't think of it in any more basic terms."