THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412200347
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Just in time for Christmas, a judge on Monday settled a legal dispute that was holding up most of a $9 million Lotto prize won by an Elizabeth City man two years ago.
But in doing so, the judge also dented the prize, awarding $115,000 to a team of lawyers whom the winner had fired last year. The judge ruled that the man had no good reason for firing the lawyers.
The winner, Walter Cole, a 74-year-old retired longshoreman, had won full possession of the Lotto jackpot in September after a two-year court battle with his friends, who had also claimed a piece of the pot.
It was the second time this year that Circuit Judge E. Preston Grissom awarded legal fees to a set of lawyers whom Cole had fired in his pursuit for undisputed possession of the prize.
That brings Cole's total legal bill to $965,000, plus an undisclosed sum he must pay his current lawyer.
Cole left the courthouse in disgust Monday. He had argued that the fired lawyers were entitled to nothing because they hadn't followed his instructions.
``It ain't fair,'' Cole muttered. ``They didn't do nothing.''
Still, Monday's ruling did have one happy result: It means Cole can finally collect the bulk of his Lotto jackpot. It has been held in escrow for two years, pending the court's decision.
Previously, Cole had collected only a small part of the jackpot - his undisputed 20 percent share, or about $60,000 a year after taxes. Now he will get the full $306,680 a year, after taxes, for the remaining 17 years.
He also will get a lump-sum payment of about $720,000, which is the remaining 80 percent of the annual payoffs he had missed for the first three years of payments.
Monday's ruling appears to end the bizarre lottery dispute - unless an appeals court overturns the Chesapeake ruling.
The trouble began in September 1992 when Cole bought a winning Lotto ticket at a Chesapeake 7-Eleven. He claimed it was his alone. But four friends who had regularly pooled their money with Cole to buy weekly lottery tickets claimed it was also theirs.
Lottery records confirmed Cole's story. The records showed that Cole had bought the winning ticket 35 minutes after buying the group's tickets.
The friends sued each other in Chesapeake and North Carolina.
Cole won sole possession of the ticket in September, but only on a technicality.
The judge ruled that the agreement among friends was made in North Carolina and therefore subject to that state's law. But there is no lottery in North Carolina, and state law forbids gambling agreements.
The ruling ended only one part of the dispute.
Next, Cole fought against his former lawyers, each of whom claimed Cole owed them legal fees.
Two sets of lawyers whom Cole had fired in 1993 made claims. Cole's first attorneys, including Norfolk lawyer Peter G. Decker Jr., said Cole owed them $2.4 million as part of a contingency-fee agreement. The judge ruled that Cole had fired the lawyers without good cause and awarded the attorneys $850,000 for seven months' work.
Cole's second lawyers, including former Richmond Mayor Henry L. Marsh III and North Carolina state Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., demanded $1 million, also as part of a contingency-fee contract. In court Monday, the lawyers lowered their demand to $425,000 for two months' work.
Grissom finally ruled, late Monday night, that the lawyers were entitled to $115,000.
All of Cole's lawyers will be paid out of Cole's lottery winnings, over the next 17 years.
And how soon will Cole get his money? It depends on how fast the lawyers can sign the settlement and how fast lottery headquarters in Richmond can cut the check.
``Christmas? It might be tight,'' said Cole's attorney, J. Nelson Happy, dean of the Regent University Law School. ``Maybe by New Year's.'' ILLUSTRATION: "It ain't fair," Walter Cole said of the lawyers. "They didn't
do nothing."
Henry Marsh, former mayor of Richmond, is among the lawyers who had
demanded $1 milion from Cole's award.
KEYWORDS: LEGAL DISPUTE LOTTO by CNB