On June 20, 2014, the Florida Supreme Court accepted review of a Fifth District decision that certified the following question of great public importance:
Is an oral agreement to play the lottery and split the proceeds in the event a winning ticket is purchased unenforceable under the statute of frauds when: there is no time agreed for the complete performance of the agreement; the parties intended the agreement to extend for longer than one year and it did extend for a period of fourteen years; and it clearly appears from the surrounding circumstances and the object to be accomplished that the oral agreement would last longer than one year.
See Browning v. Poirier, No. SC13-2416. To view the Fifth District’s opinion click here.
Howard Browning and Lynn Poirier lived together as a couple between 1991 and 2009. In 1993, the couple orally agreed that they would split the winnings of any lottery tickets purchased by either of them while they remained in a relationship. In 2007, Poirier purchased a winning ticket and received $1 million dollars less taxes. Poirier, however, refused to give Browning half of the proceeds. Browning in turn sued for breach of an oral contract and unjust enrichment, seeking half of Poirier’s winnings. Poirier moved for directed verdict on both causes of actions, claiming the statute of frauds as a defense. The trial court granted Poirier’s motion on both counts, entering final judgment in favor of Poirier.
Rehearing the case en banc, the Fifth District held that Poirier was entitled to a directed verdict on the breach of contract claim because the couple’s agreement was voided by the statute of frauds. Citing the Florida Supreme Court case of Yates v. Ball, the district court explained that an oral contract with no specified date for performance is subject to the statute of frauds if it is clear that the parties intended for it to last longer than one year. The district court highlighted that Browning and Poirier’s lottery agreement was to extend until the couple’s relationship ended. The court stated that any suggestion that the couple had intended for their relationship—and thereby, the lottery agreement—to end within one year was belied by the evidence indicating their intention for a long-term commitment. Ultimately, the district court certified this issue to the supreme court.
The Fifth District reversed the trial court’s judgment on Browning’s claim for unjust enrichment. Because Browning testified that he had given Poirier the money to purchase the winning ticket with the implied understanding that they would share the proceeds, the district court held that a directed verdict should not have been granted in Poirer’s favor.
Judges Torpy and Griffin dissented in part. They agreed that the directed verdict on the unjust enrichment count was error, but characterized the majority’s conclusion on the contract claim as ignoring the plain language of the statute, stating that it only considers contracts which clearly cannot—as opposed to likely will not—be performed within one year. Browning made a similar argument in his initial brief to the supreme court, contending that the qualifying rule articulated in Yates contradicts the plain language of the statute of frauds and improperly brings the subject contract within its reach.
This article will be updated once this Court decides the case.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Mark Ou (no changes).