That's absolutely superb, Jason!

For those who enjoy lottery cases (I do) there was an interesting case involving a lottery in New South Wales last year, New South Wales Lotteries Corporation v Kuzmanovski (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2011/106.html)

In that case, in July 2007, Mrs Kuzmanovski purchased two $5 instant lottery tickets for her husband for his birthday. The tickets were themed on the board game named ‘Pictionary’. Once the plastic covering had been scratched off, each panel revealed a picture, a word and a sum of money. When Mr Kuzmanovski scratched one of the tickets, he was delighted to see that one panel contained the word “Bathe”, a picture of a man swimming and $100,000. The Kuzmanovskis immediately began to celebrate their win.

However, the next day when Mr Kuzmanovski took the ticket to his local newsagency, the newsagent scanned the ticket, and the scanner produced the message that it was “not a winning ticket”. The Kuzmanovskis contacted the New South Wales Lotteries to protest the decision. NSW Lotteries informed them that the picture and the word did not match and that the ticket was not a winning ticket. In fact, the matching picture for the word “Bathe” was supposed to be a bathtub, and the matching word for the picture of the swimming man was supposed to be “Swim”.

The rear of the ticket had the following terms;

PLAY INSTRUCTIONS
Scratch Category A, Game 1 to Game 3 to reveal a word, a picture and a PRIZE in each Game.
If the word shown in any one Game matches the picture shown in the same Game, you win the prize shown for that Game.
Repeat this process for Categories B, C, D and E. …”
…
THIS TICKET IS GOVERNED BY THE PUBLIC LOTTERIES ACT 1996, THE REGULATIONS AND THE RULES. ...

As it happened, although the play instructions suggested that the Kuzmanovskis had won (as arguably, the picture *did* match the word according to the dictionary definition of 'bathe'), section 50(4) and (5) of the Public Lotteries Act provided:
(4) A prize is not payable in respect of a ticket in an instant lottery if the ticket does not satisfy any such verification code or other test.
(5) This section has effect even though the ticket may indicate that a prize has been won.

The trial judge held that the notice on the rear of the ticket was not sufficient to incorporate the statutory terms, so that the Kuzmanovskis were entitled to $100,000 (being the expectation interest under the contract) and that moreover, if he was wrong on the contract, they were entitled to $20,000 under the Trade Practices Act for the distress suffered as a result of the misleading or deceptive conduct. On appeal, the Full Federal Court reversed the trial judge's decision as to the contractual award but upheld the award of damages for distress.

There's an amazing number of cases on lottery tickets which were misleading or had rules which were somehow ambiguous, and on cases where lottery tickets are somehow defaced, mislaid or otherwise lost. I shall enjoy looking at this one.

Kind regards,

Katy

Dr Katy Barnett
Senior Lecturer
University of Melbourne
Parkville 3010 VIC
AUSTRALIA

+ 61 3 9035 4699

k.barnett@unimelb.edu.au



________________________________________
From: Jason Neyers [jneyers@uwo.ca]
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 5:10 AM
To: obligations@uwo.ca
Subject: ODG: Lottery Winnings

Dear Colleagues:

Can someone who has thrown away a $1 million winning lottery ticket
(mistakenly thinking it was a loser) claim the proceeds back from
someone who took the ticket out of the garbage and claimed the prize?
Yes, according to the law of Arkansas :

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1172212--winning-lottery-ticket-plucked-from-trash-lands-two-women-in-court-fight
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/02/sharon-jones-lottery-winner-pay-back-winnings_n_1470244.html

Apparently, judges in Arkansas can ask the parties to write their
judgments as well: "The judge instructed the winning side to write the
judgment for his signature, and it will become official once [White
County judge] Hughes signs it"

Sincerely,

--
Jason Neyers
Associate Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
Western University
N6A 3K7
(519) 661-2111 x. 88435