I was sued by my factory worker boss after a $40m Powerball win – he was in a syndicate with me but the cash wasn’t his

A FACTORY manager attempted to sue his colleagues after they won $40million in the lottery.

The Powerball prize was won by workers who were part of a lottery syndicate with each of the 14 people paying in $50.

Brendan King from Sydney claimed he was owed $2.7million following the whopping jackpot win by his colleagues in May 2016.

King attempted to sue the organizer of the syndicate, Robert, Adams.

The father-of-five had reportedly been part of the Prysmian cable factory lottery pool since 2012.

In an affidavit, King claimed that he made the shocking discovery when another worker told him about the win.

Manoj Prabhu told King: “Looks like we are going to have a mass walkout.”

When King asked why, he replied: “Because of the lottery win in the factory. They had a massive win.”

King replied: “I’m part of that!” and quickly went to check the lottery ticket copies he kept in his office.

He discovered that none of the numbers matched that of the winning ticket and that he was the only member of the original syndicate who was excluded from the draw.

The syndicate leader, Mr Adams claimed he did not include King because they did not pass each other on the factory floor in order to discuss it.

Adams’s lawyer Michael Lee SC told the NSW Supreme Court that there were two syndicates and the one that received the winning ticket, did not involve King.

Meanwhile, lawyers for King denied this and said outside of the court: “There was only one syndicate.”

The lawyer added that King and his family were in a state of stress amid the legal battle.

King admitted that the dispute caused him financial problems.

He said: “I got too many bills. My wife is seriously sick but I will get my day in court.

“I won’t give up what is rightfully mine.”

Adams told the court: “For many, many years I have operated several lottos without Brendan and without people who are in that syndicate.

“I am very sorry that I didn’t have the opportunity to ask Brendan to be a part of the winning syndicate.”

According to King in the affidavit, Adams told him “s*** happens” after he discovered he lost out on the prize money.

In December 2016, Supreme Justice John Sacker ruled that the win by the 14 factory workers was the result of a “one-off” pool and not part of the regular work syndicate of which King was a part of.

The judgement stated that Adams had no “fiduciary obligation” to pay King a $2.7million share.

“There is simply no evidence to suggest that Mr Adams assumed the fiduciary office in relation to any of the factory workers, in any given draw, without making contact with them or receiving or holding their funds to be used for that purpose,” Justice Sacker said.

He added: “There is similarly no evidence to suggest that Mr Adams presumed that any particular individuals would be automatically included in any given draw which he chose to enter.”

As the decision was handed down in court, a number of the winning workers hi-fived each other and joked about visiting the casino.

If King won the case, each of the winning workers would have had to give up $200,000.

King lodged an appeal against the decision which he also lost.

Following the legal dispute, King was given a hefty bill of $1million in court fees for the costs incurred by his colleagues.

The Sydney-based man then accepted a transfer with the company to South Carolina following the bad blood caused by the argument.

One coworker, Fahad Saleem said: “It got too much for Brendan, he’s a good guy, he transferred with the company to Lexington.”