TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Supreme Court answered a potential $1 million question in favor of a man who says his girlfriend broke an agreement to share lottery winnings after she hit it big.
Howard Browning says he and Lynn Anne Poirier agreed in 1993 to share any lottery money they might win. Fourteen years later, with the couple still together, Poirier won $1 million in the Florida Lottery's Firecracker Millionaire Raffle.
She refused to split it with Browning. He sued.
The couple has since broken up. But the court ruled Thursday that if they were still romantically involved when Poirier won, the 1993 deal was still in effect.
That overturns previous rulings that the agreement couldn't be enforced for more than a year unless it was in writing.
A jury still must decide whether Browning should get half.
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