A €400,000 share in a disputed Lotto jackpot is again "on ice" following a decision by four men from the Ballyvary area of Co Mayo to appeal to the Supreme Court a decision by Judge Frank Clarke in the High Court last month.
Lawyers for the four, Mr Frank O'Reilly, Mr John Joyce, Mr Seamus O'Brien and Mr Michael McHale, claim that Judge Clarke erred in law by ruling that Mr Martin Horan, a plant-hire operator from Bohola, Castlebar, was entitled to a one-fifth share in a €2 million jackpot.
Judge Clarke's decision in early December led to Lotto syndicates all over Ireland reviewing and tightening their membership rules.
Mr Horan won his case in the High Court despite being significantly in arrears in his payments to a syndicate, which included the four men.
According to legal experts, the crucial element deciding the case in favour of Mr Horan was the fact that there had been no formal financial parting of the ways between the plaintiff and the rest of the syndicate.
For this to happen, Mr Horan would have had to be paid in full the winnings from various draws which had accumulated over some time.
Notice of the appeal has been filed this week with Mr Horan's legal team.
It means he won't be able potentially to access the disputed money for at least another 18 months until the Supreme Court decides the issue.
Mr Horan used to play cards in Mr Frank O'Reilly's pub in Ballyvary and claims he was the fifth member of a syndicate which won the jackpot in January 2001.
He told the High Court he had always paid in lump sums and sometimes in arrears and had never been removed from the syndicate.
Mr Seamus O'Brien, organiser of the syndicate, had told the court that in late October 2000 he told Mr Horan he wanted to get some money from him for the Lotto. Mr Horan had refused.
This allegation was denied in the High Court by Mr Horan.
Mr O'Brien said he subsequently reduced the number of people in the syndicate to those who were paying him regularly.