Woman does not have to share winnings with her sister | may 13, 2010

Two sisters have been fighting in court regarding the sharing of a winning lottery ticket. This lottery ticket had been purchased back in 2005 and it ended up being a winning ticket which was worth $500,000. Bakaysa testified in the Connecticut Courtroom that the winning lottery ticket should only be shared with her brother. However, her sister, Theresa Sokaitis testified in court that she is in fact the one who should be receiving half of the money from that lottery ticket. The confusion over the sharing of the lottery ticket seems to stem from the fact that the sisters used to play the lottery together. They used to take trips together and they would play the lottery together. This was until 2004 when they had an argument and Bakaysa began playing the lottery with her brother instead.

The Winnings

During 2005, Bakaysa and her brother, Troy, bought a Powerball lottery ticket and ended up winning $500,000 with that ticket. That was when things got heated, Bakaysa refused to share the winnings with her sister and Sokaitis decided to sue her in order to obtain half of the winnings. Sokaitis claimed that she and her sister had a contract which stated that any lotteries either of them won would be shared with the other. Sokaitis claimed that her sister was going against the contract the two of them had and took her sister to court. Bakaysa claimed the two had a fight over money in 2004 which led to the termination of that contract.

The Judges verdict is in

The verdict has came in and it is good news for one sister, but not so good of news for the other. The Connecticut Court judge has determined that Bakaysa wins the case and she will not have to share half of the lottery winnings with Sokaitis. She is now in control of what she does with the money. The judge determined that their contract had in fact been void and therefore there was no legal reason why Bakaysa should be forced to share the winnings with her sister.