Ohio Code 3770.12 – Court order approving transfer – express findings necessary
A court of competent jurisdiction shall approve a transfer of a lottery prize award only in a final order that is based on express findings of the court. The court shall approve the transfer if each of the following conditions that applies is met and is included in the court’s express findings:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3770.12
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
(A) If the transferor is a prize winner, the transferee has provided to the prize winner a disclosure statement that complies with section 3770.11 of the Revised Code, and the prize winner has confirmed the prize winner’s receipt of the disclosure statement, as evidenced by the prize winner’s notarized signature on a copy of the disclosure statement.
(B) If the transferor is a prize winner, the prize winner has received independent professional advice regarding the legal and other implications of the transfer.
(C) The transferee has given written notice of the transferee’s name, address, and taxpayer identification number to the state lottery commission and has filed a copy of that notice with the court in which the application for approval of the transfer was filed.
(D) The transferee is a trust, limited partnership, general partnership, corporation, professional association, limited liability company, or other entity that is qualified to do business in this state and meets the registration requirements for that type of entity under Title XVII of the Revised Code.
(E) The transfer complies with all applicable requirements of the Revised Code and does not contravene any applicable statute or court order.
(F) The transfer does not include or cover the amounts of the lottery prize award that are required to be withheld or deducted pursuant to section 3119.80, 3119.81, 3121.02, 3121.03, 3123.06, 3770.071, or 3770.072 of the Revised Code.
(G) Any amounts described in division (F) of this section that are required to be withheld or deducted, as of the date of the court order, will be offset by the commission first against remaining payments due the transferor and then against payments due the transferee.
(H) Except as provided in divisions (F) and (G) of this section, that the transferor’s interest in each and all of the future payments from a particular lottery prize award is to be paid to a single transferee, or, if the payments from the lottery prize award are to be directed from the state lottery commission to multiple transferees, the commission has promulgated rules under section 3770.03 of the Revised Code permitting transfers to multiple transferees, and the transfer is consistent with those rules.
(I) If the lottery prize award has been transferred within twelve months immediately preceding the effective date of the proposed transfer, the state lottery commission has not objected to the proposed transfer. The court shall presume that the requirements of this division are met unless the commission notifies the court in writing before the hearing on the application for transfer, or through counsel at that hearing, that a transfer of the same lottery prize award has been made within that twelve-month period and that the commission objects to a subsequent transfer within that twelve-month period. The court shall find that the requirements of this division are not met if the commission provides notice of a prior transfer of the same lottery prize award within that twelve-month period and its objection to the proposed transfer, unless the transferor or transferee shows by clear and convincing evidence that no previous transfer of the same lottery prize award occurred within that twelve-month period. For purposes of this division, any of a series of transfers of a lottery prize award that occur simultaneously as part of a single transaction shall not be considered to be a prior transfer of the lottery prize award within the twelve-month period immediately preceding the effective date of the proposed transfer, provided that the condition set forth in division (C) of this section is met.
If the court determines that all of the conditions in divisions (A) to (I) of this section that apply are met, the transfer of the lottery prize award shall be presumed to be fair and reasonable and in the best interests of the prize winner.