Update: guy won $30 million; judge freezes half of prize at request of ex-wife

Northern_Piper · May 23, 2004, 5:33am

There was some chatter on the boards a few months ago about the guy in Ontario who won $30 million in the lottery and put the ticket in a safe deposit box for nearly a year. He said at the time he waited a year just to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid with the money, but it also came out that he had been married at the time and it sounds like he divorced his wife during the year.

Well, his ex is now suing him for half of the winnings, and has got an order from the Ontario courts freezing half of the $30 million pending disposition of the law suit: Half of big lottery winner’s assets frozen:

Mr. Justice David Aston of the Ontario Superior Court ordered Mr. Sobeski’s assets frozen on May 4 after reviewing a statement of claim by Nynna Ionson, a 47-year-old Woodstock woman who married Mr. Sobeski in 1998. Ms. Ionson charges that Mr. Sobeski hid his win from her while engineering a plan to keep the money out of her hands. The ruling suggests the courts may see merit in Ms. Ionson’s claim.

<snip>

Ms. Ionson believes that even if the courts were to accept the divorce papers served on her by Mr. Sobeski, she is still entitled to half of his winnings, because the lottery draw took place long before the divorce was finalized. “On February 8th, 2004, the date the divorce was granted, Ray had the ticket in his possession, which entitled him to $30,000,000, and as such, I verily believe that the full amount of the $30,000,000 would go into his net family property …”

DMark · May 23, 2004, 7:21am

Not the first time this has happened, with the same results.

Husband, or wife, realizes they have won the lottery, got divorced and cashed the ticket…the courts almost always go back and divide the money.

I am sure there have been more clever people…taking the money and staying “poor” for a few months or even a year.

Then there was the guy who won one of the biggest jackpots in Powerball history…his divorce had gone through exactly a week before he won it and she was entitled to nothing.

One happy man, and he moved here to Las Vegas and bought a big ass house next to Wayne Newton’s place - with his kids and a new wife.

Shade · May 23, 2004, 2:31pm

As the old joke goes:

Quick, pack a suitcase, I won the lottery!
For hot weather or cold?
I don’t care, just be out of the house by noon.

Leaper · May 24, 2004, 12:58am

“Verily”?

The last time I saw that word was in a freshman English student’s first draft of her first paper.

Is that a Canadian/law thing?

Northern_Piper · May 24, 2004, 7:21am

You see it from time to time in affidavits and such. I never use it myself, and train my articling students not to use it. Plain language is my goal.

Cisco · May 24, 2004, 7:50am

LOL. Are you a professor? That’s so funny imagining a student finding a word like that and using it with the best of intentions :D.

Live and learn :).

Northern_Piper · May 24, 2004, 5:07pm

Sometime sessional lecturer, but primarily practising barrister & solicitor. The reference was to articling students - after graduating from law school, in Canada you have to serve a year of articles as a student-at-law with a lawyer, as a form of apprenticeship.

It’s not uncommon for archaic language to be used in modern legal documents. We tend to rely on precedents (i.e. - templates) that have stood the test of time. Some lawyers don’t worry about old language, but others try to update them.

Mister_Rik · May 24, 2004, 5:36pm

I’ve never understood people’s motives in cases like this. Unless the guy really really really hated his wife, why not split it with her? I mean, even if he split it with her, he still gets $15 million!. Good lord, if $15 million won’t keep him happy…

That behavior reminds me of women who file for divorce, get a big alimony judgment, and then refuse to remarry so that they can punish their ex by making him pay for years and years and years.