A Lawyer's Wet Dream

The biggest news in the Boise area this morning: Who owns the winning $1 million lottery ticket? Some excerpts from the story:

The story of what exactly happened with Saturday's winning Powerball/PowerPlay ticket is a complicated one. Wade, a Maverik clerk, printed the winning ticket for a customer early Saturday evening. But she mistakenly printed the wrong kind of ticket, and the customer returned it to the store in exchange for a different one. To add to the confusion, there's at least one Treasure Valley man, Tom Park, 34, of Eagle, who said he believes he was the original purchaser of that ticket and is thinking of trying to claim the winnings.
Idaho lottery law states that once a ticket is printed — even in error — it becomes property of the store that printed it. It cannot be cancelled, but it can be sold to another customer until 7:59 p.m. the night of the drawing. That didn't happen in this case, and on Sunday morning McCollough discovered the winning ticket when she came to work.
According to court documents, she checked the numbers and determined it was a winner. She then paid the store the price of the ticket and agreed to split the winnings with her manager, Dennler...
...McCollough and Dennler filed with the Idaho Lottery Monday morning to claim the winnings. But on Wednesday, so did Wade, the clerk who mistakenly printed the ticket. Later that day, Maverik Stores did, too...
...Enter Tom Park of Eagle, who said he originally bought the winning ticket at the Maverik station on State Street. But he wanted 20 plays for $20, and the clerk instead printed out 10 plays with a multiplier, which also costs $20. Park said he refused that ticket and instead took 20 new plays. But he said after he left the store he was hit with a feeling that he should have had that original ticket.
He said he went back into the store, stood in line and paid another $20 to get the original ticket back. He said he doesn't think he got the right ticket though. He said the clerk gave him a different ticket that time around...

My prediction: the combined lawyer's fees will far exceed the $600K+ after taxes that the ticket is worth.