Following a novel contractual dispute, a restaurant waiter who dreamed one night that he and his boss would scoop the jackpot in the Euromillions lottery has won a half share of a £1 million windfall after his dream amazingly came true.
The waiter’s sleep had been disturbed by a dream that he was holding a large bundle of cash with his boss standing in front of him. The following day he had ‘badgered’ his boss for three hours before the latter agreed that a lottery ticket should be bought which turned out to be a winner.
A bitter dispute subsequently developed between the pair as to who was entitled to the winnings. Although the waiter had actually bought the ticket, his boss insisted that the stake money was his – having come from the restaurant's till – and that he alone had chosen the winning numbers.
After viewing a series of increasingly angry texts between the pair and CCTV footage of events in the restaurant as the winning slips were filled in, the High Court ruled that each man was entitled to half the winnings. Each had paid half of the £9 stake and had shared the task of choosing the winning numbers.
Although neither man was an entirely reliable witness, the waiter’s account was inherently more plausible and the Court found that there had been a binding contract between the pair that they would jointly play the lottery and that they would share any winnings on an equal footing.