Canadian lottery claim headed for the courts

What seemed at the time to be a straightforward husband-and-wife purchase of a Canadian lottery ticket has grown into a complicated and acrimonious dispute between business partners, with a British Columbia court this week refusing to make a summary judgment, referring the case for a full court hearing.

Four years ago Maria Fehr was allegedly given a $20 bill by her husband to buy a lottery ticket in Surrey, BC; the ticket won Cdn$ 12.6 million.

That caught the attention of Fehr’s business partner, Maria Ganguin, who evoked a partnership agreement that money from the business could be occasionally used to buy lottery tickets, with winnings shared between the two women.

Ganguin claimed half the big win, a move resisted by Fehr who said the buy-in came from her husband and not money from the jointly owned business.

This week the dispute reached the British Columbia Supreme Court, with Fehr and her husband applying for a summary trial to resolve the matter quickly based primarily on sworn statements.

Justice Trevor Armstrong ruled that Ganguin, despite a lack of evidence for her claim, should be allowed to test her business partner’s credibility at a full trial.

Related and similar