- 4 - to the fiduciary of the decedent prize winners’[sic] estate upon receipt of an appropriate probate court order appointing such fiduciary. The division shall be relieved of any further responsibility or liability upon payment of such installment prize payments to the fiduciary of the estate of a deceased installment prize winner or the heirs or beneficiaries thereof named in an appropriate probate court order. [Conn. Agencies Regs. sec. 12-568-5(d) and (e) (1993).] The Division was authorized to, and did, fund its LOTTO obligations through the periodic purchase of commercial annuities. The Division was named as owner of these contracts, and all payments made thereunder were remitted to the State. No specific prizewinner was either a party to or a named beneficiary of the annuity contracts. The record does not reflect the cost of these contracts, presumably because the State typically acquired a combined annuity to provide for payment of all LOTTO prizes won during a specified period of time. Additionally, payment of awards to lottery winners was not guaranteed by any State agency. However, at no time through the submission of this case had the State ever defaulted on amounts due to the approximately 2,000 persons who had won LOTTO jackpots since the game’s inception in 1983. Decedent’s LOTTO Prize In late 1992, decedent and his wife won a Connecticut LOTTO prize in the amount of $15,807,306.60. The award was payable in 20 annual installments of $790,365.34 each, commencing on December 3, 1992. After receipt of the first such installment,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011