In what is thought to be the first ruling on a lottery prize in divorce proceedings in England and Wales it was found that where a husband or wife was ‘unilaterally buying tickets from his or her own income’, without the knowledge of their partner, then it was ‘easy’ to see the prize was a ‘receipt by that party alone’ and therefore as ‘non-matrimonial property’.
In this particular case the couple were both in their 50s and were married for more than 25 years before they separated several years ago. The wife had won £500,000 on the lottery and used £275,000 of her winnings to purchase a property in London, which she shared with her husband for a short period before the separation.
The Judge found that whilst the initial lottery win was non-matrimonial property and should therefore be excluded from the matrimonial ‘pot’ available to distribution between the parties in the financial remedy proceedings, the property that had been purchased by the wife using those winnings had become matrimonial property and should therefore be taken into account by the court.
The Judge found that as the husband had only lived at the property for a ‘relatively short period’ of time he was not entitled to ‘anything like’ an equal share in the property and was therefore awarded a lump sum payment of £85,000.
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