B.C. Appeal Court rules lottery winner must be paid back $600,000 loan
VANCOUVER — A dispute over whether $600,000 was a loan or a gift from a lottery winner has been settled by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in favour of the gambler.
Enone Rosas won $4.1 million in a lottery in 2007 and loaned the $600,000 to her friend Hermenisabel Toca so she could buy a home.
A lower court judge had determined the loan was to be paid back without interest in a year, but Rosas didn’t sue for seven years and the B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled the time limit had run out to force the money’s return.
But that verdict was overturned in a unanimous decision posted Wednesday from the three appeal judges who ruled that every time Toca told Rosas she would pay her back next year, that extended the time for repaying.