4 co-workers sue winners of Powerball

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PORTLAND – A judge on Wednesday refused to put a hold on a Buxton couple’s $41.5 million Powerball winnings, saying a lawsuit seeking a share of the jackpot wouldn’t hold up in court.

Pat and Erwin Wales claimed the prize on Monday, but were sued early Wednesday by four of Pat’s co-workers, who say they don’t believe the ticket belonged to the couple alone.

Based on an affidavit by one of the co-workers, the court did not find enough evidence that the co-workers would win the suit, Justice Nancy Mills wrote.

The ruling does not stop the lawsuit, but it means a hold cannot be placed on the winnings.

The four plaintiffs worked with Pat Wales at Lincoln Financial Group in Portland and were among 19 members of an office pool that kicked in $10 apiece to buy 190 Powerball numbers and share any winnings.

In court papers, Edward Joseph Ng said all the participants were under the impression they would share in the winnings of the tickets Wales bought.

“In my discussion with Patricia Wales, I asked her what she would do if we won,” said Ng, of Portland. “She began to speculate about what she would do with her ‘portion.'”

The other plaintiffs are Michael Dawalga Jr. of Sanford, Nicole M. Joy of Gray and Jessica L. Aspiras of South Portland.

Terrence Garmey, a lawyer for Wales, 60, and her husband Erwin, 70, said information printed on the blocks of tickets they bought documents that their actions were beyond reproach.

The suit claims that Patricia Wales proposed the pool to a number of co-workers two days before Saturday’s drawing and had everyone sign a document recording their participation.

On Monday, two days after the drawing, the suit says Wales went into the office before normal business hours and removed personal items from her desk – including the signed pool agreement.

The suit claims that Wales did not have the right to decide which tickets were purchased with pooled funds and which ones were bought with other money.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Garmey displayed copies of tickets the Waleses bought Friday night at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Rollinsford, N.H., for themselves, for relatives, friends and neighbors, and for Pat’s office pool.

The copies show that 190 numbers were purchased at 7:47 p.m., 33 more a minute later, and 20 picks, including the winner, at 7:49 p.m., Garmey said.

Rick Wisler, executive director of the New Hampshire Sweepstakes Commission, said officials can tell chronologically when tickets were bought, but not how many or which tickets were in a particular batch.

The time stamped on the tickets shows the hour and minute it was printed. But Wisler said other information in the lottery computer pinpoints the time of sale down to the second.

Garmey said Pat Wales was devastated when told that she might be sued by people she worked with and thought of as her friends.

“She just wept,” he said. “She put her head on the table and sobbed. When I comforted her, her first words were, ‘Let them have the money,'” the lawyer said.

Garmey said he prevailed on her to fight.

Powerball is played in 21 states and Washington, D.C. Four winning tickets were sold for Saturday’s $294.8 million jackpot. The Waleses elected to take a lump-sum payment.

Wisler said payment is scheduled for two weeks after Monday’s claim by the Waleses.

The suit asked that a judge freeze at least $8.6 million of the winnings because “there is a clear danger that defendants will move the winnings out of state or otherwise make funds unavailable.”

The denial of a hold on the winnings means the check will not be withheld, and the Waleses are free to do whatever they want with the money.

Garmey said that when he met the Waleses on Sunday for the first time, Pat Wales told him she couldn’t imagine that co-workers might contest the couple’s right to the winning ticket.

The lawyer said that to prepare for any eventuality, he decided to open the envelope containing the office pool’s 190 picks and make copies of the tickets. The originals were left at Wales’ workplace when she showed up Monday to tell co-workers of her good fortune.

Garmey said co-workers hugged and congratulated Wales that morning, and that there was no indication of ill feeling. The couple appeared at a news conference Tuesday in Saco but have not been available for comment since.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers, Michael Kaplan and John McVeigh, told them not to discuss the case. A call to the two lawyers was not immediately returned.

Dawalga said Wales specifically told him, “If one wins, we all win.”

Their lawsuit alleges breach of contract, unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary duty.

Garmey said the lawsuit should be a warning to lottery players.

“The lesson here is never, ever, ever buy a lottery ticket for anyone else because, God forbid, you should win,” he said.