Court: Taker of Discarded $1M Lotto Ticket Not Entitled to Winnings

[Blackthorne TA]

This one seems a little strange to me. Apparently a woman took some discarded lotto tickets from a trash bin at a convenience store and one was a $1 million winner.

Judge just ruled that she's not entitled to the winnings, it should go to the one who discarded the ticket!

What?!

[T2Bruno]

I think this falls in line with other rulings. "Finders-keepers" doesn't apply. The statement of the woman who placed it in the garbage was the ticket was 'mistakenly' placed in the trash. As such the woman did not relinquish possession -- I believe the same would apply if someone mistakenly dropped a envelope of money in the trash. The person finding it should notify the authorities.

[Blackthorne TA]

Perhaps. It still seems odd to me because inadvertent or not (though Duncan did say she threw it away on purpose because she thought it was not a winner) if Jones had not fished it out, it would have been destroyed and Duncan would never have gotten the money.

[Gaear]

Except that anyone who throws a winning lottery ticket in the trash will always have done it mistakenly.

Generally, the simple act of discarding something is considered an implicit act of disownership, regardless of your claimed intent. For example, when you put your trash out at the curb for pickup, you no longer own it.

If you throw a $100 bill in the trash, you don't own it anymore and the finder can keep it, although the generally moral thing to do is to inquire as to whether it was really meant to be discarded, I suppose. That's different than, say, gathering up money that fell off an armored truck or claiming a bag of money that you found by someone's seat on the bus as your own. Those things weren't literally or implicitly discarded.

I suppose the lottery commission wants to avoid the 9/10 of the law thing with lottery tickets though so as not to encourage robberies or theft and be seen as supporting lottery players.

[Blackthorne TA]

In this case the lottery commission gave the money to Jones and she said she already spent some of it.

It's not completey clear, but I think it was the store owner who started this. I think the store owner saw that Jones picked up a winning ticket out of the trash and wanted to claim that it was the store's then. There was something about the owner putting up a sign after this happened to tell customers not to take the dicarded tickets.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Originally Posted by Blackthorne TA

In this case the lottery commission gave the money to Jones and she said she already spent some of it.

She's really SOL if she doesn't even have the $1 million to give her.

I understand that they were able to prove who the person was who originally purchased the ticket by matching the time stamp on the ticket to the video camera at the store.

But how did the person who purchased the ticket come to find out that she had actually won after she had thrown the ticket away, and how did they then trace the ticket back to the woman who was not the winner, but cashed in the prize?

I'm with BTA on this one, I think if you threw it out, that's on you - tough luck.

[Shardnax]

You might forget about something, or misplace something, but you never throw something away accidentally.

[T2Bruno]

I just read the woman scanned the ticket in the store and got a "Not a Winner" notice. That may complicate things a bit. I can see why the lottery commission would support this verdict; otherwise, they may have to pay out twice.

but you never throw something away accidentally

I want some of what Shardnax is taking....

[Gaear]

Originally Posted by BTA

In this case the lottery commission gave the money to Jones and she said she already spent some of it.

Heh, yeah it seems it only got murky once the courts got involved.

Arkansas Lottery Security Chief Lance Huey testified that he investigated the circumstances of the ticket falling into Jones' hands. He said the lottery was satisfied with the investigation and awarded the prize.

[Shardnax]

Originally Posted by T2Bruno

I just read the woman scanned the ticket in the store and got a "Not a Winner" notice. That may complicate things a bit. I can see why the lottery commission would support this verdict; otherwise, they may have to pay out twice.
I want some of what Shardnax is taking....

I don't just toss boxes, bags, or whatever in the trash without making sure of the contents. I don't know about you but, I've never thrown something out if I had the intention of keeping it :P.

[reepnorp]

Duncan's attorney, James "Red" Morgan, argued that she simply made a mistake by throwing away a $1 million ticket and that the only right she willingly parted with was to enter the ticket for the possibility of a secondary prize.

This statement in and of itself angers me greatly. As far as I'm concerned it's an all-or-nothing situation. You either want to claim the prizes, or you throw it out because you don't want any. You can't just throw something out and then say "No you silly goose, I was only throwing out the part I knew about!"

I'd be curious to see a situation where someone buys something cheap from a yard sale only to find out it's worth millions. The previous owner would get laughed at for saying "If I had known it was worth more I wouldn't have relinquished ownership" because that would just be stupid. This is pretty much the same thing in my books.

If you throw something out, give something away, sell something, or otherwise dispose of something, you should no longer have any legal rights to it.

[Barmy Army]

I don't know how it works inthe US, but over here if you find something that is not your property, you are legally obliged to hand it in to the police. If then, after some time (not sure how long) the rightful owner hasn't come forth to claim it, it's yours. In this case, the rightful owner claimed the ticket and had obviously thrown it away in error. No-one would knowingly think 'Nah, I don't need this $1 million winning lottery ticket'. I see no problem with the judgement.

[Silvery]

Originally Posted by Shardnax

I don't just toss boxes, bags, or whatever in the trash without making sure of the contents. I don't know about you but, I've never thrown something out if I had the intention of keeping it :P.

You've never washed your jeans and then found a soggy fiver in the pocket?

[Darion]

Wow, imagine the twist of fate.

Finding the Winning Ticket on the trash, and having it taken away!

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Originally Posted by Barmy Army

I don't know how it works in the US, but over here if you find something that is not your property, you are legally obliged to hand it in to the police.

Even if you find it in a trash can?

[LKD]

That's ridiculous. Garbage is by its nature no longer anyone's property. Otherwise, you could sue the garbage man for moving your "property" without your permission if you accidently throw away something important (it can happen, you toss a pile of papers not realizing something vital is in there)

[Barmy Army]

Originally Posted by Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

Even if you find it in a trash can?

Sure; if you didn't buy it, it's not yours.

[Taluntain]

I doubt it really applies to garbage as well, Barmy, because as LKD noted, then anyone could change their mind about anything they threw in the trash and request that the garbage collectors return it or pay a restitution fee. Not to mention that in the majority of cases, once the garbage is collected, it's either as good as destroyed or impossible to prove whose any item in the truck is. So I could bin a broken iPod that I dropped and then claim that I accidentally placed a perfectly working iPod in the trash and demand a new one. The garbage companies would be scammed out of business in a week.

[Barmy Army]

Well, I think that's where the difference in 'someone whose job it is to dispose of things in rubbish bins' and 'some randomer looking through someone's rubbish bins' lies.

[Splunge]

Except the rubbish bin didn't belong to the person who claims the ticket is theirs.

[Gaear]

Does someone have an obligation to turn in food scraps found in a dumpster to the police?

[Barmy Army]

Depends if you want to eat it or not! Don't worry, if I see you rummaging through someone's rubbish to finish their corned beef sandwich, I won't tell anyone