B.C. co-workers fail in lawsuit to claim portion of colleague's $2M lotto win
Claim by trucking company colleagues dismissed after judge finds spotty documentation in group chat
"Winning the lottery should be a happy event. In this case, sadly, it has ruined relationships."
Justice Liliane Bantourakis's one-line summary of a recent B.C. Supreme Court case underlines the circumstances that saw four colleagues take a co-worker to court over a $2 million lottery jackpot that they felt entitled to share.
It outlines how co-workers at a trucking company had bought lottery tickets as a group from at least 2021 to 2022.
Surrey trucker Mandeep Singh Maan won the $2 million BC/49 jackpot on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. His co-workers cried foul after they found out about his big win several days later when a photo of Maan holding a $2-million BCLC cheque was posted online.
They claimed he bought the winning ticket with the co-workers' pooled funds or, alternatively, that he was required to buy tickets on that fateful day.
But the court agreed with Maan's interpretation of events — that he was a regular lottery player and bought the tickets with his own money.
Won a washing machine
The court heard that Maan had his interest in lotteries piqued years ago when he won a washing machine in a lottery in India. The Surrey man told the court he spent around $400 a month on lotto tickets.
According to his co-workers, they had a regular lotto group going at the trucking company, occasionally co-ordinated through a WhatsApp group chat. Maan's colleagues claim they pooled money together for group lottery purchases on Mondays and Fridays.
But according to Maan, the ticket pooling arrangement was "irregular" and "infrequent."
Ultimately, the judge found that the case hinged on the plaintiffs' and Maan's credibility.
"The parties' interactions leading up to and after the winning ticket purchase are disputed, the alleged lottery pool agreement was not set out in writing and the documentary record is sparse," reads the decision.
Only 16 pictures of lotto ticket purchases — ranging in amount from $40 to $140 — were posted to the WhatsApp group chat between June 1, 2021, and Aug. 5, 2022, according to the court.
Inconsistent evidence
The judge relied on B.C. Lottery Corporation records that showed a total of $12 was spent at a Chevron gas station in Langley on the day Maan won the jackpot.
The court found that this amount was not consistent with a group purchase, as the WhatsApp group chat pictures had showed amounts higher than that.
The justice also found that one plaintiff's allegations — that he had given Maan money to buy the tickets a few days prior — were inconsistent and featured discrepancies.
"The fact that the parties bought lottery tickets together, even if they did so with some frequency, is not sufficient to discharge the plaintiffs' burden of proving on a balance of probabilities that they entered into a binding oral agreement with the defendant that would give them a claim over the winning ticket," the decision concludes.
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