Civil law

Gambling enthusiasts and the potential accumulation of winnings from week to week is what keeps a large proportion of the country's population excited about the numbers drawn in the weekly Five Lottery draw. They are more hopeful that if they hit a winning combination, their lives could be fundamentally changed. The very first draw of the Five Lottery was on 7 March 1957 and at the time of writing, the largest prize so far was recorded as 6,523,768,955 forints.

But what are the rules for this popular game?

The legal background to the Five Lottery is provided by Act XXXIV of 1991 on the organisation of games of chance. The authority responsible for the supervision of gambling is the Authority for the Supervision of Regulated Activities (hereinafter "the Authority"), which also supervises the operation of the Five Lottery, and only the state games organiser is authorised to organise this game.

The Five Lottery is also governed by the Promoter's Five Lottery Rules of Participation.
According to the law, a lottery is a game of numbers organised at the same time intervals and authorised by the Authority under the name "lottery", in which a predetermined number of numbers in a given set of numbers entitles the player to a prize.

In a numbers lottery, the organiser is required by law to award a predetermined prize to the holder of a ticket purchased for a predetermined purchase price if one or more numbers in the ticket number sequence match the number drawn in the public draw.

Are there any legal proceedings related to lotteries?

The history of court decisions includes more than one decision where the lottery was the subject of litigation. These cases typically involve several people playing the lottery together and then one of the players, to the exclusion of the others, alone collecting the winnings from the lucky winning ticket. This is fine when the others might realise that there is a benefit to playing the lottery together and it has not been shared by the other player who cashed the ticket, if they cannot agree among themselves, their case does not end up in a court case. In one such case, the Curia ruled that joint lottery winnings are subject to the parties' either oral agreement and the civil law rules on community property. The result in that case was that the partner who had concealed the prize had to share the lottery winnings with the others on a pro rata basis.

What is the prize pool?

In the context of the lottery, the law also stipulates that the prize pool is the product of the number of tickets purchased and their price, of which at least 40% must be used for prizes. In the five numbers lottery, you have to choose 5 out of 90 numbers and you win if you get as many of the 5 winning numbers as possible in the weekly draw. You need to hit at least 2 numbers to win something, and you need to hit 5 numbers to win the jackpot.

How to play the Five of a Kind lottery?

The Five of a Kind lottery can be played with your own numbers and random numbers, on paper or digitally. Bets can be placed on numbers from one to five weeks in advance. If no-one hits the five numbers drawn in a given week, the prize pool for the five winning tickets is added to the following week's winnings, significantly increasing the amount that can be won and typically the amount of money that can be won that week. This weekly accumulation can last up to a year if no one hits all the numbers week after week. If there are no five-hitters for a year, the jackpot is distributed among the other winners according to the participation rules. But it's not just the full-match prize pool that accumulates from week to week, because the same happens if there are no two, three or four-match tickets with the prize pools created for them.

How do I get the prize?

If a player has a full lottery ticket, his/her grand prize will be paid by the game operator only after verification and identification by bank transfer, no cash payment is possible. The organiser will deduct personal income tax from the winnings before payment, so there is no obligation to declare and pay tax.

The author of the article is Dr György Zalavári, lawyer and managing partner of Ecovis Zalavári Legal Hungary.

In many cases, our clients come to us claiming that they have been the subject of an unexpected enforcement action arising from a long forgotten relationship dating back many years, and often they no longer remember why, to whom or for how much they were owed. In such cases, it is necessary to examine retrospectively whether the claim can still be enforced against them. 

If the claim or the right to enforce it has become time-barred, this is good news for the client, because in this case the enforcement proceedings against him can be terminated. In such cases, the historical background should be examined and assessed in the chronological order of the events in the legal relationship and the actions of the parties. 

The general rules on limitation periods are set out in the Civil Code (CC). Here, it is also necessary to consider whether the legal relationship on which the limitation period is based is to be examined under the current Civil Code or the earlier "old" Civil Code, in force until 25 February 2013, because the rules on limitation differ in the two cases. 

Under the current Civil Code, claims are subject to a limitation period of five years, subject to statutory exceptions. The limitation period is shorter for claims arising, for example, from parking, utilities, internet, mobile and fixed telephone services. But we can also set a shorter limitation period in writing in an individual contract, with the proviso that limitation cannot be completely excluded. The limitation period starts to run when the claim becomes due. If a time-barred claim cannot be enforced in court proceedings, but the debtor must expressly invoke this, because if he does not make a declaration to this effect, a time-barred claim will also be judged by the court and recovered by the bailiff, because the limitation period cannot be taken into account ex officio in court or administrative proceedings. If the time-barred claim is nevertheless paid by the debtor, it can no longer be recovered on the grounds that it is time-barred. 

Dr. György Zalavári LL.M  lawyer and managing partner of Ecovis Zalavári Legal Hungary , also points out that the limitation period is interrupted if the debt is acknowledged by the debtor, if the parties reach an agreement; or if the creditor initiates court proceedings and a judgment is obtained. 

In such cases, the limitation period starts again. If the debtor submits a claim to the bailiff under Article 41 of Act LIII of 1994 on Judicial Enforcement (Act LIII of 1994 on Judicial Enforcement) that the claim subject to enforcement is already time-barred under the provisions of the Civil Code or other applicable law, the bailiff is obliged to send this request to the applicant for enforcement. The debtor has 15 days to make a statement on the merits in response to the debtor's presentation. If he acknowledges that the claim is time-barred within this period, he will have to repay any sums already received during the enforcement and will also bear the costs of enforcement. If he has then admitted the debtor's claim to be true and has paid the sums due and determined by the bailiff, the enforcement proceedings will be terminated, and the debtor will be exempted from further enforcement actions. 

However, if the claimant for enforcement does not admit the limitation plea and the bailiff is unable to terminate the proceedings, the debtor must prove his claims on limitation in court in a suit for termination of enforcement in order to terminate the case. However, it should also be noted that the limitation period for a claim or enforcement right is interrupted by any enforcement action. 

Thus, if, from time to time during the procedure, the bailiff takes some verifiable action, the limitation period is restarted at each procedural step and can last for years, almost without time limit. 

If you need to investigate the statute of limitations for a claim, contact Dr. György Zalavári LL.M  lawyer and managing partner of Ecovis Zalavári Legal Hungary.

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In the case of a gift, the donor transfers the ownership of an object to the donee free of charge, with the possibility of reclaiming it under certain circumstances.

One of the legal bases for reclaiming a gift is if the donor needs it for his/her subsistence. It is important to note that only the gift still existing can be recovered and only if its return does not endanger the subsistence of the donee. The donee is not obliged to return the gift even if the donor adequately provides for the donor's subsistence by means of an annuity or maintenance in kind.

The gift may also be recovered for a serious infringement committed by the donee or a relative living with the donee at the expense of the donor or a close relative. In addition to the above, it is also possible to claim not only the existing gift, but also the value of the value of the gift that has been replaced. 

A serious breach of a criminal offence or a breach of a legal obligation is considered to be a serious breach, provided that a final court or administrative decision is not a prerequisite for the claim to be enforceable, but the mere deterioration of the relationship between the parties or the lack of respect for the donor is not sufficient.

 The gift cannot be recovered if the gift or the value substituted for it is no longer present at the time the infringement was committed.

Finally, the donor can also claim the gift back if he or she has subsequently made the gift on the basis of a presumption that has been permanently frustrated, without which the gift would not have been made. Three conditions must be considered in this context: (i) the transaction was based on a presumption; (ii) without the presumption the transaction would not have been concluded; (iii) the presumption was subsequently permanently frustrated. In the examination, the circumstances surrounding the gift must be carefully weighed, for example, 'the relationship which existed between the donor and the donee before the gift was made is of great importance; the value of the object of the gift must also be examined, and in connection with this whether the gift is so significant that it may be reasonably inferred that the donor was in fact induced to make the gift by the presumption which he had put forward' [PK. 76]. 

The gift cannot be recovered or the value substituted for the gift cannot be claimed if the failure of the assumption on which the gift was based was caused by the donor's wrongful conduct.

The gift can never be reclaimed at the normal rate, but it can never be reclaimed even if the gift-giver has forgiven the offence. Forgiveness or waiver of reclaiming is when the gift-giver does not reclaim the gift after a long period of time without good cause.

Dr. György Zalavári LL.M.
Ecovis Zalavári Legal Hungary
Lawyer | Mediator | Corporate Law and Data Protection Specialist
gyorgy.zalavari@ecovis.hu