Matrimonial property

Whether a lottery prize was to be regarded as matrimonial or non matrimonial property was highly fact-specific and did not depend centrally on the origin of the amount used to purchase the lottery ticket. If the parties were in effect operating a syndicate, whether formal or informal, where both were aware that tickets were being bought and where both had agreed tacitly or expressly to their purchase, then it was easy to see that prize as a joint venture and therefore as matrimonial property. On the other hand, if one party was unilaterally buying tickets, from his or her owned income, without the knowledge of the other party, then it was equally easy to see the prize as a receipt by that party alone akin to an external donation, and therefore as non-matrimonial property. That case would be fortified if the party in question was buying the tickets as part of a syndicate with others, and more so if the