Connecticut sisters in lottery feud
Saturday August 15th 2009Money has, throughout the ages, always been the source of many a conflict and this is most certainly the case when it comes to a Powerball lottery win of $500,000. The big win has two Connecticut sisters in a lottery feud over the reluctance of the winner to share with her 83 year old sister.
A recent ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court has paved the way so that 83 year old Theresa Sokaitis can sue her elder sister, 87 year old Rose Bakaysa, for half of the winnings.
The $500,000 Powerball lottery win fell to Rose and a brother, Joseph, back in 2005 and although they had a contract in place agreeing to split any winnings this did not happen. A previous court had ruled that Theresa could not sue for half of the winnings because under a Connecticut law gambling contracts are illegal.
The contract between the sisters was first put in place after a big win of $160,000 at a local casino in 1995 after Theresa scooped the in playing poker and both sisters sat down with a typewriter to create a four line agreement between themselves to say that they would share any future winners from lottery, scratchcards or bingo. This agreement was duly notarised but an argument between the two octogenarian sisters happened at some point although it’s unclear if this was before Rose chose to buy lottery tickets that netted the big $500,000 Powerball win.
However the lawyer for Rose said the argument in 2004 ended the agreement and therefore makes it null and void and Theresa has no claim on the winnings. The Supreme Court viewed things a little differently and has ruled that Theresa can now sue Rose for a share of the win.