A New Jersey judge has determined Ines Sanchez has no legal rights to the $152 million her former live-in boyfriend, Pedro Quezada, won playing the Powerball lottery, NorthJersey.com reported.
State Superior Court Chancery Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh declined the plea for the lottery assets to be frozen, but said Sanchez deserved a fair share of the winnings due to the 10-year relationship that has been defined as common law marriage in New Jersey in the past, NorthJersey reported.
Since 2010 though, the state of New Jersey added an amendment to that law stating that palimony, or money given to a spouse after a long-term relationship has ended, can only be given if a written agreement is signed beforehand, according to NorthJersey.com.
"As empathetic and compelling as your argument is - and as much as I consider 10 years a long-term relationship - I don't have that in writing to hang an opinion on that these assets need to be restrained," McVeigh said in court on Nov. 8, according to NorthJersey.com.
Quezada, who currently lives in Clifton, New Jersey, in a house he bought with his lottery winnings, broke up with Sanchez last month after living together in the newly-bought home. The couple have one child together and ran the Passaic supermarket, NorthJersey reported.
According to Sanchez's lawyer, she moved out of the home and has a domestic violence claim pending against Quezada, NorthJersey.com reported. Quezada's lawyers declined to comment on the claim or the pending case.
After Quezada won a sum payout of $152 million after taxes, he sent $57 million to the Dominican Republic, $5 million was given away, $300,000 was spent on his new Clifton home and $20 million cannot be located, according to attorney Michael De Marco who represents Sanchez, NorthJersey reported.
Marco wanted to freeze Quezado's assets until the trial; however since the assets weren't frozen, there's nothing to go to trial for.
"I think we're kidding ourselves to say we'll ever see any of that money again," Marco told Judge McVeigh, according to NorthJersey.com. "If he is permitted to continue this course of conduct, there will be nothing left to talk about."
Quezada's attorney, Jonathan W. Wolfe, argued the couple was married and that Sanchez was with his client when he went to sign the claim and collect his winnings, stating she made no argument then, NorthJersey.com reported.
"Mr. Quezada individually went and purchased that ticket," Wolfe said. "They had never agreed to share the proceeds."
Sanchez's lawyer then insisted that the former couple were more than just domestic partners, and shared a "joint venture," according to NorthJersey.
"We're not seeking 'palimony.' The parties had a relationship where they pooled their resources and paid their expenses," Marco told the judge. "One of the things this couple did was play the lottery, they devoted themselves to a joint venture ... So now we have an exception because one of the expenses has a return of $152 million?"
State Judge McVeigh was not convinced, stating these types of arrangements and relationships cannot be upheld in court without writing.
"If I accept that was a 'joint venture,' there is a division of responsibility, a sense of reliance, a fiduciary obligation that is not always articulated ...I look at this as the ticket that he was able to buy because she contributed by working at the store, which then gives him the freedom to go buy the ticket," McVeigh said, NorthJersey reported "This is a unique situation. It's something that most people dream about - stepping into the bottom of the rainbow, into that pot of gold. Or did you think I was going to say something else?
"That's what money does to people: It changes positive relationships into bad ones," she said. "It doesn't always enhance a relationship, or bring out people's better qualities. Her [Sanchez's] life has been up-ended by this winning ticket...But I am a judge. I don't create the law. I have to follow it."