Man seeks share of dead aunt’s Lotto win

A HIGH Court judge was urged yesterday to consider the contents of a woman’s will when deciding who should be given a half share of a her €450,000 Lotto win a year before her death.

Mr Justice Eamon deValera was urged to consider that the late Kay Ellison was “speaking from the grave” through her will because she did not bequeath €225,000 to her nephew, taxi driver Gary Ellison.

Ms Ellison, who died single in April 2007, left the bulk of her estate to her brother Liam Ellison, 79, who is disputing Gary’s claim that he is entitled to a half share in her €450,000 win in January 2006.

Gary Ellison brought High Court proceedings seeking a declaration that he is entitled to a half share.

The case was heard earlier this year by the High Court sitting in Tralee and was adjourned until yesterday in Dublin for legal submissions from both sides.

After hearing the submissions, Mr Justice deValera said he would give his decision in the next law term.

In the hearing, retired company director Liam Ellison, of Templeville Drive, Dublin, claimed he and his sister were part of an 18-year syndicate and it was “crystal clear” he was joint owner of the ticket.

Gary Ellison said he was also in a syndicate with Kay and claimed Liam had not provided any evidence to show that it (Gary’s syndicate) did not exist. The court previously heard Liam had not gone to collect the winnings with Kay because he had an important appointment on the day she decided to go. Gary drove her in his taxi to the Lotto offices, where they both signed the winning ticket.

In legal submissions yesterday, Cormac O Dulachain BL, for Gary Ellison, said the existence of one syndicate did not exclude another.

The most important feature of this case was that Gary Ellison had signed the Lotto ticket and this was a “definitive element” in any contract, counsel said. None of the evidence called by Liam had dislodged Gary’s claim over the winning ticket by virtue of him signing it, counsel added.

Patrick Hunt SC, for Liam Ellison, argued that Kay had been described during the court case as a religious person and a woman of high moral principle. It was therefore inexplicable that she would effectively “double cross” her nephew by doing Gary out of what he was now claiming to be his legal entitlement, counsel said. “It simply does not stack up,” counsel said. By not putting such a provision for the half share in her will, “she is speaking from the grave by saying this,” counsel said.

The court previously heard Liam Ellison and his sister were very close and he was in regular contact with her. Each Saturday she would call to his school uniform factory in Dublin’s Camden Street, where she would order in lunch from the pub across the street. He would give her €8 and she would buy two €4 quick pick tickets in the Spar shop and give one to him.

His sister, who never married, was a daily Mass-goer but she was also very frugal, “not at all domesticated” and did not like cooking. She relied on him, he said.

“Kay wouldn’t spend Christmas. She had a horror of going into a nursing home and was very money-conscious,” Liam said.

On the night of January 28, 2006, at around 8.10pm, she telephoned him to say: “We’ve won the Lotto.” He immediately went around to her house. He told her not to do anything with the ticket until he got advice from his and Kay’s accountant.

He denied their nephew Gary was at her house on the night.