Husband fails in bid to get half of estranged wife’s Lotto Max win

HUSBAND FAILS IN BID TO GET HALF OF ESTRANGED WIFE’S LOTTO MAX WIN

Last September, Brett McCoy and his partner Robin Nicole Walker shared a $60m Lotto Max jackpot. Since then there’s been a dispute between Robin and her husband, but a court has now ruled half of her winnings shouldn’t be paid into a trust.When the couple won their big Lotto Max prize, Robin initially told her partner they’d only won $60,000 just as William Acosta from Connecticut, USA, failed to realize he’d won a $1m Powerball prize.Walker had split up from her husband Lonnie Darrel Roth in 2009 and six years later, she began her relationship with McCoy. Around the time of the Lotto Max jackpot win, Walker and Roth had agreed that their two younger children would go to live with her. As news of the win broke, that decision was changed. Her husband then began proceedings to claim part of the Lotto Max for a trust set up for the children.He applied for half of her Lotto Max winnings to be paid into a trust, though initially the sum mentioned was only $7.5m “or such other amount as the court deems appropriate” to be held in a secure investment requiring a court order or written agreement from the parties to accessHowever, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice D.A. Sulyma ruled on Tuesday April 24 that the Alberta resident does not have grounds for any of the Lotto Max winnings to be paid into that trust.Lottery disputes do occur from time to time. In Australia there was a long-running dispute over a $40m Australian Powerball win. They don’t always go to court as was the case with the dispute over a $16.6m win on the Australian Powerball that ended with an out of court settlement. Recently we told you of a Canadian player who eventually decided not to sue for a portion of a $60m Lotto Max jackpot syndicate win.The court ruled that “this marriage was long over, and the parties were married only on paper,” and since her Lotto Max win, child support has been paid by Walker on a voluntary basis.The Justice treated the application as a preservation order and those usually involve situations where money is being moved overshore to defy a court process. Sulyma ruled that was not the case with this Lotto Max dispute and dismissed the application and Roth will have to pay costs too.