| Last October
83-year old Edward St John found a Massachusetts
Hold’em Poker scratch card in some discarded
trash from the White Hen, a convenience store.
He regularly went through the shop’s trash,
checking tickets that players had discarded
- a few years previously he had found a winning
$10,000 ticket.
This time hit hit pay-dirt with a Hold’em
Poker card which happened to be a $1 million
winner and he duly claimed his prize. However
Kevin Donovan had actually bought this ticket,
along with about 60 others (in fact the whole
stock of these cards at the White Hen). He didn’t
scratch off the windows, just the signal code
saying if his cards were winners or losers,
and he claimed that he’d accidentally
discarded the winning ticket.
So, the case went to court, but sadly before
the hearing Kevin Donovan died of a heart attack
whilst on a weekend away, so his son filed the
case on behalf of his father’s estate.
Whilst the win was in dispute the Massachusetts
State Lottery would not pay out, even though
they had dismissed Donovan’s claim saying
that a lottery ticket is a “bearer instrument”
which means, if you have the ticket, you own
the prize regardless of who bought it.
However the case has now been settled out of
court with Edward St John agreeing to pay $140,000
to Mr Donovan’s estate, so that the winning
money can be released and he can hopefully enjoy
its fruits before he dies. He plans to share
the money with an older brother and should receive
$43,000 annually for the next 20 years.
Meanwhile a soldier stationed at Fort Knox
nearly lost out on a big win when he cleaned
his car out. All the rubbish from the car, including
an old Kentucky Lottery ticket went into the
trash can. But then something told him to check
the discarded ticket and as a result he found
he’d won, on 16 Aug 2006, and will take
home a cheque for $552,000 after taxes.
11 September 2006
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