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MIAMI-DADE COURTS

Miramar woman's lawsuit over husband's Lotto winnings dismissed

A Miami-Dade judge dismissed a Miramar wife's lawsuit over her husband's Lotto fortune.

ebenn@MiamiHerald.com

A former beauty queen who sued her husband after discovering he won the Florida Lottery and tried to hide the money from her will not get a cut of the winnings, a Miami-Dade judge has ruled.

Donna Campbell, 48, filed the lawsuit against husband Arnim Ramdass, 52, last November, when she Googled his name and found a press release proclaiming him a winner in a $19 million jackpot.

Ramdass, an American Airlines mechanic at Miami International Airport, had bought the winning ticket in a pool with 16 of his airport co-workers. They opted for a $10.2 million lump-sum payment, meaning each one of the 17 winners received about $600,000 before taxes.

Campbell sued to get her cut -- she wanted at least half her husband's share -- but Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey put an end to the case with a recent dismissal order.

''She has no identifiable legal rights'' in the case, Bailey said during a hearing in May. ``Where does the law say you automatically have a right to participate in the proceeds?''

The saga started after the June 2007 Florida Lotto drawing. The lucky numbers -- 6, 31, 34, 44, 45 and 49 -- matched the six computer-picked numbers on the mechanics' pool ticket.

Ramdass mentioned nothing of his good fortune to his wife, who said she began to notice strange behavior in their Miramar home. Ramdass disconnected the phone line and kept the televisions turned off. A suspicious Campbell searched her husband's name on the Internet, found the lottery press release and confronted him.

Cornered, Ramdass explained to Campbell that he bought the ticket for his daughter from a previous marriage, who lives in Orlando. The story didn't fly with Campbell.

''He had been buying those tickets for years, and he never, ever said one of them was for her,'' Campbell said.

Campbell, a former skin-cream model and runner-up at the 1979 Miss Trinidad and Tobago beauty pageant, said she wanted to clear up the lottery case before filing for divorce from Ramdass, whom she married in 2005.

Bailey had suggested that divorce court might be a better venue to resolve the dispute.

Campbell and Ramdass continued to share a home through the lawsuit but stopped speaking.

''I am so upset over the outcome of this case,'' Campbell said Wednesday to The Miami Herald. ``This has left me emotionally devastated and financially crippled.''

Ramdass' attorney, Luis Ugaz, declined to comment about the case, citing his office's policy. Attempts to reach Ramdass were unsuccessful.

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