$40m Australian Powerball Dispute Might Not be Over Yet

 

$40M AUSTRALIAN POWERBALL DISPUTE MIGHT NOT BE OVER YET

The dispute over a $40m Australian Powerball win has come to an end, or hasn't it? It seems the problems for Brendan King may linger on a little bit longer.The father-of-five had claimed that he should have been given a share of his co-workers $40m Australian Powerball win. However, the New South Wales Supreme Court threw that claim out and now he face having to pay the syndicate’s legal costs.King has vowed to continue “seeking justice” in court and says “the fight’s not over yet. He added, “I don’t want to be rich. I’m seeking justice. What happened is just so unfair.” The 43-year-old has now been transferred to another factory to avoid further conflict. All but two of the $40m Australian Powerball syndicate have already quit their jobs.The dispute over the lottery win saw the $40m Australian Powerball jackpot suspended by a judge until a final decision could be reached. That led to a hearing at the New South Wales Supreme Court over the Australian Powerball dispute.Justice John Sackar threw out Mr King’s claim after hearing that two separate syndicates were operating. Syndicate leader, Robert Adams, had begun a second one-off syndicate and he arrived at work after King had already left. The decision to buy a ticket for the Australian Powerball draw was described as “an out-of-the-blue entry.” The winning ticket had no contribution from the claimant and the judge agreed this was the case.That’s despite Brendan claiming that there was an agreement in place that syndicate members could pay retrospectively to enter a draw if absent on the day and he should be the 15th member of the syndicate.Recently we reported how a $16.6m Australian Powerball jackpot dispute was also settled. Last year two friends in Australia had a dispute over a $2.5m TattsLotto win.King did get a win in that Australian Powerball draw. However, rather than becoming a lottery millionaire, his windfall was just $12. That was on a separate ticket as part of the original workplace syndicate purchase. When finding out about his co-workers much larger win Mr King had an angry confrontation with Adams. The syndicate leader admitted to the court “I spoke more harshly than I should have.”Justice Sackar agreed that Mr Adams had the right to decide who would be in this one-off syndicate and “was not in breach of any such duty.”