Most of $100,000 Assigned to Untouchable Account : Lawsuit Freezes Housewife’s Lottery Winnings

Most of a Newport Beach housewife’s $100,000 California Lottery prize will be held in an untouchable account because of a suit against her husband’s restaurant business, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner ruled Thursday.

Citing the “spirit” of the lottery, however, Commissioner Thomas J. Keenan said Sharon Nunez, 29, could spend $4,000 of the money that she won Monday night on the televised Big Spin-Off show in Hollywood.

The request to freeze the winnings was filed in Orange County Superior Court Wednesday by Perry Morris Corp., which has sued Raul Nunez Jr. for $250,000. The suit, which also seeks $10 million in punitive damages, alleges that Raul Nunez failed to pay rent in January, 1984, to Perry Morris for equipment used in three Kaplan’s restaurants.

According to the suit, the restaurants--located in South Coast Plaza, Brea and West Covina--are owned by Darama Inc. Nunez is listed as sole shareholder and president of Darama.

A California Lottery official said Thursday that this is the first time since the spin-offs for the $2-million grand prize began Oct. 28 that parties to a lawsuit have tried to recover alleged debts or damages by freezing a lottery winner’s award.

An undocumented resident, Jose Caballero, 24, who won the $2-million grand prize last week, faces deportation after he admitted entering the country illegally from Mexico. However, lottery officials have said he will be allowed to keep his winnings.

“Caballero was a non-resident but (the Nunez case) is the first of its kind,” said lottery spokesman Bob Taylor. “And it may not be the last of this kind of a person getting some kind of notoriety” that draws unwanted attention. “What you’re getting each spin is a little slice of the population universe, and you just never know who is gonna show up.”

According to documents filed in U.S. Federal Court, both Darama Inc. and Sharon and Raul Nunez have filed for bankruptcy.

After winning the $100,000 Monday, Sharon Nunez said she wanted to buy a house, “a nice doggie” for her son, Matthew, “and some clothes for myself.” The rest, she said, she might invest in a new restaurant, “a McDonald’s or maybe a Denny’s.”

Her husband was a cook at a Denny’s restaurant when they met in 1970, she said in court documents.

Neither Nunez was in court Thursday, and they could not be reached for comment.

Lottery spokesman Taylor said a registered check for $80,000 was mailed to Sharon Nunez on Wednesday; about $20,000 had been deducted for taxes. He said the check should have arrived at her home by Thursday.

Perry Morris had sought to have the prize money seized before it arrived at the Nunez home--a request the commissioner denied.

The attorney for the firm did successfully argue that the winnings be held in a protective account on the grounds that Sharon Nunez’s prize money is community property.

Commissioner Keenan had asked Paul Mast, the Nunezes’ attorney, what harm the mother of two boys would suffer if the money were placed in an untouchable account.

“She shouldn’t be under court order on what she should do with her money . . . and her life,” Mast answered.

Chris Blank, attorney for Perry Morris, argued that “if she’s not bound, she can cash the check, she can take the money and she’s gone.”

“I think you’re right,” Keenan concluded.

But, Keenan said, “I would anticipate” that since Monday night Nunez might have made “promises and agreements with others, and I think that . . . a certain amount of her earnings should be exempt.”

A hearing was scheduled Dec. 19 to decide whether the money will remain in the trust account.