Family Division published in The Times November 22 2011
S v G
It was recently reported in The Times Newspaper in the Law Reports section that Mr Justice Mostyn stated where a spouse used part of money won in a lottery to purchase a house in which both spouses lived, that part of the win was converted into matrimonial property. He gave a reserved judgment in Ancillary Relief proceedings on 14th October 2011. He held that the husband, S, was entitled to a share in the proceeds of the sale of the house purchased by the respondent wife, G, from lottery prize money she had won.
His Lordship said that whether a lottery prize was to be characterised as a matrimonial or non-matrimonial property depended on the circumstances. If the spouses were in effect operating a syndicate it was easy to see the prize as a joint venture to be equally share. Alternatively, a ticket bought unilaterally by one spouse from earned income without the knowledge of the other made the win closer to an unexpected inheritance; the moreso in the instant case since the wife had a troubled marriage had bought the ticket as part of a syndicate.
While the initial receipt of the lottery prize had to be regarded as non-matrimonial property, when the wife used some of the prize money to purchase a house in which the parties lived, she converted that part of her non-matrimonial assets into matrimonial property. However, given the non-matrimonial source and the relatively short period that the spouses had lived in the house before separation, the husband was not entitled to anything like an equal share.