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American Morning

Legal Rights in Office Lottery Pool

Aired April 30, 2002 - 07:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, New Jersey lottery officials will reveal the winner of a $59 million Big Game lottery ticket, one of three winners nationwide from the April 16 drawing. And guess what? The winner will not be anyone from an office pool at a Newark nursing home, ending speculation that a co-worker, Angelito Marquez, had bought the winning ticket with their money and was refusing to share the jackpot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you ever do this again, get involved in a pool?

ANGELITO MARQUEZ, LOTTERY PLAYER: No, I think that's about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: The big question at this hour: What are your rights in a lottery pool? An innocent office pool can quickly turn into a legal tug of war if the winning numbers come up.

And joining us now, CNN legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin -- good morning.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi.

ZAHN: This poor guy, Angelito Marquez.

TOOBIN: Poor Mr. Marquez.

ZAHN: Everybody thought he had won. What's the deal?

TOOBIN: Well, he disappeared. He didn't come into work after he had got the tickets...

ZAHN: Ah!

TOOBIN: ... after he had -- that's right.

ZAHN: You won!

TOOBIN: And they all said, he has disappeared. He has taken our money and he has got the winning ticket. And he said, no, no, I lost. And they said, oh, sure you lost. And guess what? He lost. He was telling the truth all along. They won actually two $1 winners.

ZAHN: Oh.

TOOBIN: Two winning tickets for $1 each. Other than that...

ZAHN: They are going to have to split that many ways.

TOOBIN: That's right.

ZAHN: So let's talk about the consequences of this story.

TOOBIN: Yes.

ZAHN: People want to know what their legal protections are. If you go into an office pool, do you need a written agreement that you went in on the ticket if you ultimately are a winner? What do you do?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, Sam Goldman (ph), the great movie mogul, used to say an oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. But in fact, it's not true. Oral contracts have been honored in lottery cases. I was surprised to see there are actually quite a few lottery cases.

There was one interesting case where there was a dispute between two women, and one woman said, I can prove that I was involved in this ticket, because the ticket matches my mother's social security number. And they checked out the ticket, and it did, and she got a share of the pool. So oral contracts...

ZAHN: All right. So she was lucky at least that she had picked those numbers.

TOOBIN: Right.

ZAHN: But what if you just go in, you give a co-worker 10 bucks and say, yes, I'm going to go in with you. Let's invest $40 this time, and that was the end of the conversation. No one heard it.

TOOBIN: You can -- the judge has to decide whether he believes one person or the other. But what lottery officials always say, and they have certainly said it a lot in light of this controversy, is you should do a simple contract. You know, that's even too formal a name.

What you should do is write everyone's name on a piece of paper who has kicked in, and then photocopy the tickets that are the group tickets. That way, you eliminate any controversy in advance. You don't have to have a lawyer involved. You don't have to do anything formal. But just do it in a slightly organized way. Put it on a piece of paper, so there is no controversy down the road.

ZAHN: And that will stand up in court?

TOOBIN: That will absolutely stand up in court. And oral contracts may stand up in court, but that's likely to lead to endless controversy. It leads to the worst fate of all, which is hiring and paying lawyers to get involved in a controversy like that. But just a simple piece of paper with everybody's name and a photocopy of the tickets and you're in fat city.

ZAHN: Do you lawyer up if you win no matter what?

TOOBIN: You know what? If you won all of these sorts of -- you know, if you won 10 million, 20 million, you should get a lawyer anyway. It's a problem I think all of us would enjoy having and be happy to pay...

ZAHN: Oh, look, he's trying to get business for his buddies out there.

TOOBIN: That's right. I'd be happy to pay a couple of thousand dollars to a lawyer. But absolutely, if you win a lot of money like this, first of all you are going to have people preying on you to try to get you to invest in things. It's probably a good idea to get a lawyer.

ZAHN: What are some of the other challenges people should be aware of in some of these lottery cases?

TOOBIN: Well, one of the -- many of the cases involve places where a lottery is illegal, where there is no lottery. Like there is a case in North Dakota where a bunch of people went to Canada to buy tickets, but at that point, North Dakota had no lottery. And they tried to enforce the oral contract under North Dakota law.

ZAHN: How do you do that?

TOOBIN: Well, they actually said, no. Since lotteries are illegal in North Dakota, you couldn't enforce the contract. There is a similar case in Alabama. A bunch of Alabama people bought some tickets in Florida, brought the tickets back to Alabama. They said no contract, because we don't have a lottery here. That actually surprised me. That didn't right to me, but that's what the cases show.

ZAHN: And you have heard the tension of these lottery winners going in to the place where they bought it to verify in fact this ticket was authentic and it matched the winner numbers. Do you need legal representation at that point?

TOOBIN: You know, I think given the stakes involved, if you really have a ticket that may win you 10 -- you know, millions of dollars, it's probably a good idea. But I mean, there is nothing complicated about it. The most important thing, which unfortunately Mr. Marquez did not learn, is you've got to have the right numbers. That's where it all starts.

ZAHN: And this poor guy got tarred and feathered. I guess there is this sort of a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) at the nursing home where people could...

TOOBIN: I think they are ...

ZAHN: ... you could be our friend again.

TOOBIN: ... they are all going to fall into each other's arms and probably start cranking up buying more tickets.

ZAHN: And the likelihood of his ever going in on the office pool is probably less than that -- nil.

TOOBIN: Let someone else buy the tickets.

ZAHN: But once again, the bottom line is an oral agreement is fine, but it would be better to go ahead, write everybody's names down, photocopy those names...

TOOBIN: That's right.

ZAHN: ... and then the chosen numbers.

TOOBIN: And then off to paradise with your winnings.

ZAHN: And the question for you, have you ever played the lottery, Jeffrey Toobin?

TOOBIN: I have, but only when it gets really big. You know, I don't play it every week. You know, when I start hearing about it on the news it's $300, $400 million, and like Mr. Marquez, I have lost.

ZAHN: You have lost. So have I. All right, Jeffrey, thanks for dropping by this morning -- good to see you again.

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