{"id":132528,"date":"2020-04-08T16:52:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=132528"},"modified":"2020-04-08T17:09:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T00:09:34","slug":"3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit to Claim $2 Million Australian Lottery Prize from 1997 Thrown Out by Exasperated Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sydney man\u2019s legal odyssey to get his hands on a A$3.3 million ($2 million) Australian lottery jackpot<\/a> that has gone unclaimed<\/a> for 23 years collapsed Wednesday when a New South Wales Supreme Court judge hailed the end to the “irresponsible pursuit of this hopeless claim.”<\/p>\n

\"David
David Owen Renshaw was described by a NSW Supreme Court judge as being \u201chighly implausible\u201d in his \u201chopeless\u201d pursuit of a 23-year-old lottery jackpot. (Image: AAP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Owen Renshaw, a disability retiree, sued NSW Lotteries in 2016, claiming he had purchased a ticket at a grocery store in the Sydney suburbs in September 1997.<\/p>\n

When he subsequently presented his ticket to another lottery vendor to check, Renshaw claimed he saw the words \u201cprovisional winner\u201d flash up when the clerk scanned the ticket.<\/p>\n

The clerk, who Renshaw claimed spoke little English, immediately threw the ticket in the trash, saying, \u201cno winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Renshaw protested, the man ran into the office and locked himself in, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Memory Lapse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Renshaw claims he was haunted by the incident, but only sought legal action after he recounted the episode to a friend in late 2015.<\/p>\n

“When I told him of my recollection, he said, ‘That must mean something,\u2019” said Renshaw, who represented himself in the case after he fell out with his pro bono<\/em> attorney.<\/p>\n

According to the plaintiff, he and his friend then googled the approximate date of the purchase and discovered a $3.3 million jackpot remained unclaimed \u2013 a jackpot that more than 50 people have unsuccessfully attempted to claim over the years.<\/p>\n

\n

Renshaw has also attributed the time lapse — somewhat self-defeatingly — to possible memory loss suffered after a workplace accident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“I never meant for this,” Renshaw previously told the court. “I didn’t want to be in a courtroom, and I didn’t want to have my head in the media.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Fantastic\u2019 Narrative <\/strong><\/h2>\n

But Justice Des Fagan was unmoved. He said it was \u201chighly implausible\u201d that Renshaw was a credible claimant and that “variations from one purported recollection to the next exacerbate\u2026 unreliability.”<\/p>\n

“The plaintiff’s narrative taken as a whole is fantastic,” he said, as reported by the Associated Press.<\/em> “It is unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

Fagan was particularly troubled that Renshaw had rejected a settlement offer from NSW Lotteries under which the operator would not have demanded legal costs if the plaintiff agreed to drop the case.<\/p>\n

Not only have the proceedings been prosecuted by the plaintiff without any reasonable evidentiary basis, they have been conducted by him wastefully and inefficiently,” wrote Fagan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“As a self-represented litigant, incurring no cost to himself and having no assets, he has lacked the incentive to exercise caution or to heed legal advice,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

“He has put the defendants to great expense and squandered significant time and capacity of the court,” Fagan said, as he ordered that Renshaw should be liable for a portion of the lottery company\u2019s costs.<\/p>\n

Another disability retiree, Robert Clemett, who unsuccessfully sued to claim the prize in 2014, reportedly attended a hearing of the Renshaw case several weeks ago in the public gallery. The judge noted there had been a \u201cscuffle\u201d between the two rival claimants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sydney man\u2019s legal odyssey to get his hands on a A$3.3 million ($2 million) Australian lottery jackpot that has gone unclaimed for 23 years collapsed Wednesday when a New South Wales Supreme Court judge hailed the end to the “irresponsible pursuit of this hopeless claim.” David Owen Renshaw, a disability retiree, sued NSW Lotteries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":132529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$3.3 Million Aussie Lottery Lawsuit Thrown Out by Exasperated Judge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Australian David Owen Renshaw\u2019s attempt to claim $A3.3 million NSW Lottery jackpot from 1997 branded \u201chopeless\u201d by NSW Supreme Court judge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$3.3 Million Aussie Lottery Lawsuit Thrown Out by Exasperated Judge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australian David Owen Renshaw\u2019s attempt to claim $A3.3 million NSW Lottery jackpot from 1997 branded \u201chopeless\u201d by NSW Supreme Court judge.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-08T23:52:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-09T00:09:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dave.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/\",\"name\":\"$3.3 Million Aussie Lottery Lawsuit Thrown Out by Exasperated Judge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dave.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-08T23:52:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-09T00:09:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Australian David Owen Renshaw\u2019s attempt to claim $A3.3 million NSW Lottery jackpot from 1997 branded \u201chopeless\u201d by NSW Supreme Court judge.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/3-3-million-aussie-lottery-lawsuit-thrown-out-by-exasperated-judge\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dave.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/dave.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"David Owen Renshaw was described by a NSW Supreme Court judge as being \u201chighly implausible\u201d in his \u201chopeless\u201d pursuit of a 23-year-old lottery jackpot. 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