Tyrone MacInnis and Barb Reddick at the July cheque presentation at the Margaree Forks Fire Station.
-by Anne Farries
The family that fractured over a Margaree jackpot has settled out of court.
Tyrone MacInnis and his aunt Barb Reddick, recipients of a $1.2 million Chase the Ace lottery prize, “are pleased to announce that they have reached a resolution,” their lawyers said Monday in a joint statement.
Only Tyrone’s half of the winnings was in dispute.
“Mr. MacInnis will receive $350,000 and Ms. Reddick will receive $261,319.50,” lawyers Adam Rodgers and Candee McCarthy stated. “They are both satisfied with the terms of the settlement.”
“It was reached mutually in order to avoid further court proceedings and to bring this matter to a final conclusion.”
Acrimony erupted July 10th, when Reddick, who lives in Guysborough, believed her ticket had won the $1.2 million pay-out in a lottery run by two Margaree firefighting departments.
Reddick paid for the ticket, but her nephew MacInnis, who lives in Glace Bay, travelled to NE Margaree to buy it. He used his aunt’s money to purchase $100 worth of tickets, and on her instructions, put his name on all of them “for luck”. With his own money, he bought additional tickets, but he did not put his aunt’s name on those.
Because the winning ticket showed both names, lottery organizers split the prize between the pair, infuriating Reddick, who felt that her prize had been usurped. She said she never discussed splitting a prize with her nephew and had never intended to do so.
The pair, formerly close, fell into bitter spite. When Reddick tried to talk to her nephew on the phone, his mother hung up. The following day, Reddick declared that her nephew was “dead to her.”
A week later, she sued him.
Meanwhile, an uproar broke out on social media. Thousands of people who had never met either party castigated them, most using the word “greed.” Many veered into vulgarity.
In August, lawyer Adam Rodgers asked the court to freeze the half-portion of the prize that the lottery organizers paid to the nephew. Justice Patrick Murray agreed pending a trial, then arranged an interim settlement conference.
Monday, the family negotiated with the judge present but outside a court session and behind closed doors.
With the deal reached, “both parties are looking forward to putting this matter behind them, and no further media statements will be made,” the lawyers stated.
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