What began as a simple husband and wife lottery win has become an embittered, drawn out and complicated legal battle between business partners which saw a British Columbia court refusing to make summary judgement and referring the case for a full trial.

Four years ago the Canadian lottery winner Maria Linsenmeier was given a $20 bill by her husband to purchase a lottery ticket in Surrey, BC. The ticket was a lucky one and won the couple a whopping $12.6 million Canadian dollars.

The substantial win attracted the attention of Maria Ganguin, Linsenmeier’s now former business partner at the time who claimed that when business was good they regularly purchased lottery tickets using company funds with the agreement that any winnings would be shared.

Under this agreement Ganguin purported that she was entitled to half of the massive win, a claim which Linsenmeier vehemently resisted, insisting that the buy-in came from her spouse rather than from any cash of the jointly owned organisation.

According to her claim Ganguin became suspicious when she read a newspaper article which reported that Linsenmeier had purchased the ticket at an outlet along her catering route.

The legal battle reached the British Columbia Supreme Court this week and saw Linsenmeier and her husband requesting a summary trial to resolve the case quickly based on sworn statements. However Justice Trevor Armstrong ruled that in spite of the lack of evidence to support Ganguin’s claim to half of the fortune, she should be allowed to test Linsenmeier’s credibility at a full trial.

The case is now awaiting its trial date in what will surely be a very interesting battle. We’ll keep you up-to-date on the developments.