Here's an amazing story from the LA Times.

Ben Waldrep owned a $800,000 house in Manhattan Beach, California. When his wife died in 2000 he decided to move out, but instead of putting the house on the market he decided to offer it as first prize in an essay contest, with applicants paying a $195 entrance fee. He aimed to give 10% of the proceeds to a cancer charity. The contest was to be judged by four independent panelists.

David McNair, a Canadian citizen from British Columbia was declared the winner, but then things started to get strange. McNair suddenly didn't seem too interested in moving into his new home, and Waldrep didn't seem to eager to move out. There were no rules in the contest regarding what would happen if the winner didn't claim the prize, so it lapsed back to Waldrep, who later sold the house for $1.2 million.

Losing entrant Dan Coulson smelt a rat, having read the winning essay which he didn't feel was worthy of the prize. He decided to take legal action. In the course of the trial document experts for the prosecution put forward evidence that the scores had been changed to fix the result. After deliberation the jury found Waldrep guilty of fraud. At this point the story took a final twist.

The jury decided that the entry fees should be returned to the entrants, plus punitive damages of $1 million - to be split between the essay writers. They forgot to mention the last part, however, leading the judge to award the entrants $1 million each in damages! Not bad for writing a 400 word essay. Now Waldrep just needs to come up with $1.8 billion...

Waldrep's lawyer will table an objection next month, when I guess everything will be sorted out - unless a further surprise awaits us.