I have been waiting for the day when something like this would happen.  Apparently a woman in the Netherlands is suing the lottery corporation there because she didn’t win the lottery.  She didn’t even enter. 

article here

Normally spoken: when you loose in a lottery, you just loose like a lot of aother people do and that’s just it. Yet there are 2 loose-scenarios here: you loose like millions of other people do, tough luck, OR you loose while your 6 neighbors have

The story is true: she sued, and she lost.

It’s also true that the Postcodeloterij deliberately plays into emotional blackmail in their frequent flyer mailings, pointing to the prospect of your whole street having a party with 15 million Euro while you stay empty-handed, if you don’t buy a ticket. And they descend on the winning street with a camera-team, making it all a highly visible event. In that sense, I can understand this lady quite well. I do believe she has legitimate emotional damage. But I also believe the court ruling is fair.

LaMa - 21 June 2007 12:10 PM

The story is true: she sued, and she lost.

It’s also true that the Postcodeloterij deliberately plays into emotional blackmail in their frequent flyer mailings, pointing to the prospect of your whole street having a party with 15 million Euro while you stay empty-handed, if you don’t buy a ticket. And they descend on the winning street with a camera-team, making it all a highly visible event. In that sense, I can understand this lady quite well. I do believe she has legitimate emotional damage. But I also believe the court ruling is fair.

In law there is no such thing as ‘emotional damage’. You can’t sue anyone for hurt feeling. You can sue for trauma, yes (like if an immediate family member died because of someone or the council, removing a dead body, by accident let the gory corpse fall off the trolley right in front of a group of nursery-school kids or something). But not emotional damage.

Well technically you can sue for it, just not successfully

I have no sympathy for her whatsoever.  If she really didn’t want to get involved why would it bother her if the rest of the block did and are now showing off their new found wealth??  Emotinal damage?  It sounded to me like she was extremely put out because her neighbor was torturing her by parking his new porche in his driveway.

But she isn’t a sore loser!

Priceless!  You know, if someone put a line like that in a movie, no one would buy it.  The writer would lose his writer’s - guild card or something, or his keyboard would get confiscated.

Maybe, after reading some of the above responses, perhaps the marketing of the tickets is a bit aggressive, but hey, here in the US, where people can join lotto clubs, or form groups at work or something and pool ptheri purchases and the resultant winnings, think how the fellow-workers feel who laughed off the opportunity.

And also, a book was recently published, showing that about one oout of ten winners end up worse off in just a few years.  They invest their winnings in scams, or very risky ventures, or casually spend like there was no tomorrow, and then wake up one day and have no money.

Dan, who plays even though it is ridciulous, because, hey, someone wins, you know?

Renquist - 21 June 2007 02:49 PM

In law there is no such thing as ‘emotional damage’. You can’t sue anyone for hurt feeling. You can sue for trauma, yes (like if an immediate family member died because of someone or the council, removing a dead body, by accident let the gory corpse fall off the trolley right in front of a group of nursery-school kids or something). But not emotional damage.

Are you sure?  In US tort law (not where this suit took place admittedly), damages can include emotional injury.  At least according to answers.com:

Damages

Personal injury tort victims must normally recover all their damages

Yep.  My lawyer asked my group and I to each put a price on our emotional damage.  Of course the more emotional damage the better for him because he gets 40%....

gray - 22 June 2007 02:20 AM

I have no sympathy for her whatsoever.  If she really didn’t want to get involved why would it bother her if the rest of the block did and are now showing off their new found wealth??  Emotinal damage?  It sounded to me like she was extremely put out because her neighbor was torturing her by parking his new porche in his driveway.

The point is that unlike a normal lottery, you cannot escape here. If someone in your street wins the normal lottery, you and the rest of the block think: “lucky basterd, you didn’t deserve it but shit happens” and shrug it off: and if the lucky bastard in question starts to show-off it will be him who gets socially isolated in the block due to his own behaviour. But in this case, the whole block thinks: “poor bastard, we are rich now and going to show you you are a sucker for not playing along”. You need to be pretty strong to withstand being immersed (literally) in this kind of situation without any effects upon you: you get isolated in your social context againts your will. In that sense, I can understand this woman very well.

JoeDaJuggler - 22 June 2007 03:34 AM

Renquist - 21 June 2007 02:49 PM

In law there is no such thing as ‘emotional damage’. You can’t sue anyone for hurt feeling. You can sue for trauma, yes (like if an immediate family member died because of someone or the council, removing a dead body, by accident let the gory corpse fall off the trolley right in front of a group of nursery-school kids or something). But not emotional damage.

Are you sure?  In US tort law (not where this suit took place admittedly), damages can include emotional injury.  At least according to answers.com:

Damages

Personal injury tort victims must normally recover all their damages

Renquist - 22 June 2007 11:33 AM

JoeDaJuggler - 22 June 2007 03:34 AM

Renquist - 21 June 2007 02:49 PM

In law there is no such thing as ‘emotional damage’. You can’t sue anyone for hurt feeling. You can sue for trauma, yes (like if an immediate family member died because of someone or the council, removing a dead body, by accident let the gory corpse fall off the trolley right in front of a group of nursery-school kids or something). But not emotional damage.

Are you sure?  In US tort law (not where this suit took place admittedly), damages can include emotional injury.  At least according to answers.com:

Damages

Personal injury tort victims must normally recover all their damages

Accipiter - 22 June 2007 11:46 AM

Renquist - 22 June 2007 11:33 AM

JoeDaJuggler - 22 June 2007 03:34 AM

Renquist - 21 June 2007 02:49 PM

In law there is no such thing as ‘emotional damage’. You can’t sue anyone for hurt feeling. You can sue for trauma, yes (like if an immediate family member died because of someone or the council, removing a dead body, by accident let the gory corpse fall off the trolley right in front of a group of nursery-school kids or something). But not emotional damage.

Are you sure?  In US tort law (not where this suit took place admittedly), damages can include emotional injury.  At least according to answers.com:

Damages

Personal injury tort victims must normally recover all their damages