## Facts

- Weber Mesa Ditch Extension Company, Inc., a nonprofit corporation, held a fundraising raffle offering a 40-acre tract of Wyoming land as the prize.
- Tickets cost $5 each or three for $10 and stated the drawing would occur on May 1, 1976.
- Don Williams bought a ticket before May 1, and his ticket was drawn as the winner in the May 1 drawing; Weber Mesa notified him that he had won.
- Some ticket stubs from tickets sold before May 1 arrived late by mail on May 6, 1976.
- After receiving the late stubs, Weber Mesa conducted a second drawing that included the late-arriving entries; Williams did not win the second drawing.
- Weber Mesa refused to convey the land to Williams, and Williams sued for specific performance or damages.

## Issues

1. Whether the raffle constituted an illegal lottery or gambling contract under Wyoming law, rendering any promise to convey the prize unenforceable.
2. Whether the nonprofit/charitable fundraising character of the raffle removed the transaction from Wyoming’s lottery and gambling prohibitions.

## Decision

- The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed judgment for Weber Mesa.
- The court held the raffle was an illegal lottery because it involved a prize awarded by chance for paid consideration.
- The court rejected the argument that nonprofit or charitable fundraising status makes such a scheme enforceable.
- Because the underlying agreement was illegal, Williams could not obtain specific performance or damages, even though he was selected in the first drawing.

## Legal Principles

- A transaction is a lottery when it contains the elements of prize, chance, and consideration.
- When a constitution or statute prohibits lotteries or gambling devices, courts will treat contracts founded on such schemes as void and unenforceable.
- Charitable purpose or nonprofit sponsorship does not negate the illegality of a lottery-type scheme.
- Courts will not aid a party by enforcing rights claimed under an illegal agreement; the parties are left as found.

## Conclusion

The court treated the land raffle as an illegal lottery under Wyoming law and, as a result, refused to enforce the raffle’s outcome or compel transfer of the land, notwithstanding Williams’s selection in the initial drawing and the sponsor’s nonprofit fundraising purpose.


Williams v. Weber Mesa Ditch Extension Co., 572 P.2d 412 (Wyo. 1977)