It's not often that we resort to just saying this, but...ah here.
A man in Canada who had a winning lottery ticket for an incredible $27 million jackpot has been told by the Supreme Court that he can't claim the prize, as his ticket was printed seven seconds too late.
Joel Ifergan, who "won" the jackpot seven years ago, has been fighting the original decision that his ticket was too late to qualify for the draw ever since, and it is estimated that he has spent over $100,000 in legal fees in order to try and get his prize.
He purchased the winning ticket for the Lotto Super 7 draw (which now no longer exists) on May 23rd, 2008, and bought two tickets. One was purchased at 8:59 pm (a minute before the deadline) but the second ticket was printed about seven seconds after 9pm, meaning that it was in fact technically for the draw the following day on May 30th. As you might have guessed by now, that second ticket was the one that won the prize.
Pic via Mashable/CTV National News
As a result of that, the jackpot was awarded to someone else, but Ifergan has been battling the verdict ever since, although is not looking for the full amount. He is asking that he be awarded half of the money ($13.5 million) as the delay was in fact the fault of 10-second processing lag. The clerk who served him the ticket did apparently inform him that the second ticket was printed after the deadline and asked him did he still want it, to which Ifergan replied positively.
While it does seem incredibly cruel, the Supreme Court judgement means that Ifergan now has no further recourse to appeal to. Yet another reason not to leave things to the last minute, anyway.
Via Mashable. Main pic via epSos .de/Flickr
