Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203080092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: THOMAS HUANG LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
If the ticket was among the millions paid for at Farm Fresh's corporate headquarters rather than at one of the chain's licensed outlets - a violation of game rules - the lottery could declare the winning ticket worthless.
But Julian, Farm Fresh chairman, on Friday said he doesn't want to talk. "We're pursuing another avenue, and he's not at liberty to discuss [the matter] at this time," company spokeswoman Susan Mayo said.
One reason may be that Farm Fresh, as well as the commonwealth of Virginia, are prime candidates for legal action by the Australians through a high-powered law firm in Richmond.
"Well, look, we know there's going to be a lawsuit if the lottery turns the ticket down," said Stanley Henderson, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
Henderson and other legal experts say that should the Great Lottery Affair end up in court, lawyers will likely wrangle over:
Whether the Australians could reasonably expect that the tickets they bought were valid.
Whether Farm Fresh, which stands to make $120,000 in commissions for selling the tickets, had the responsibility to know the lottery rules.
Whether the Virginia Lottery had the responsibility to educate Farm Fresh officials and players about the full scope of its rules.
The results of a court battle are bound to set a precedent, said William Bergman, president of a national trade association for state lotteries in Washington.
"Up to now . . . people who don't understand all the finite rules of the lottery have been given the benefit of the doubt and [have been] paid," Bergman said. Lotteries usually have "not scrutinized to the finest degree a technical or inferred infraction."
The International Lotto Fund, established by Australian lotteries guru Stefan Mandel in Melbourne and aided by its American agent, Anithalee Alex, bought at least 5.6 million tickets in an attempt to cover the 7.1 million possible number combinations.
On Thursday, trustees for the 2,500 Australian investors stepped forward with the winning ticket, which was bought at a Farm Fresh in Chesapeake's Western Branch section. They were accompanied by two lawyers from the firm of Hunton and Williams. In a meeting with several lottery officials, they were told they'd have to wait for their first check pending an investigation, expected to last several days.
At issue is a regulation, pointed to by lottery officials two weeks after the Feb. 15 jackpot drawing. It states that a ticket must be paid for at the site where it is dispensed.
"I really don't think that's fair," said A.C. Miller, president of Miller Oil Co., which owns the Miller Mart convenience stores. Miller arranged to receive about $750,000 from the Australians at his headquarters for ticket purchases.
"I just don't approve of our convenience stores taking large amounts of money, for safety," he said. "My God, we get held up. We've had two shootings for $75 to $100. The whole thing is very foolish. . . . We had no idea there was such a rule."
If denied the jackpot, the International Lotto Fund could try to claim the $27 million, charging it was reasonable to expect that the tickets were valid, said Alemante Selassie, law professor at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.
"How well published are the rules?" said John Tilhou, a Virginia Beach commercial lawyer. "If the rules are not adequately stated, a buyer who runs afoul due to a technical violation would have a strong argument."
But a lawsuit against the Virginia Lottery would be hard to win, law experts said, because the commonwealth, by statute, gave the Lottery Board the power to write the regulations.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.