NO SHARE FOR THIS BEAUTY

5 December 2008

Judge refers lotto share claim to the divorce courts

 

The Miami Herald reports that a bid by an ex-beauty queen to claim a half share of her husband's Florida Lottery $600 000 syndicate win was turned away this week by Dade Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey with the suggestion that a divorce court might be a better venue to resolve the dispute.

48-year-old former beauty queen Donna Campbell admitted that she had continued residing with her husband Arnim Ramdass (52) despite intending to divorce him after she learned that he had won a $600 000 pre-tax share in a lotto syndicate at work.

Ramdass had gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the win from her, including disconnecting the telephone and keeping the television switched off, Campbell told the court, but she had Googled his name and discovered the June 2007 win, worth a total of $10.2 million to the syndicate.

In issued a dismissal order on Campbell's suit, Judge Bailey said: ''She has no identifiable legal rights. Where does the law say you automatically have a right to participate in the proceeds?''

Campbell, a former skin-cream model and runner-up at the 1979 Miss Trinidad and Tobago beauty pageant, said she wanted to clear up the lottery case before filing for divorce from Ramdass, whom she married in 2005.