THE “lucky 14” who won a $40 million jackpot in a workplace syndicate have had a cheeky celebration after a colleague lost his bid for a share in the prize.

Outside the NSW Supreme Court this morning, some of the winners gave each other a high five when the judgement was made.

One jokingly said: “We are now going to the casino!”

Father of five, Brendan King lost his bid for a share in the Powerball jackpot won by his workmates in a Liverpool factory syndicate.

Mr King, a production manager at the Prysmian Group in southwest Sydney, took legal action against co-worker Robert Adams, claiming he had been shut-out of the syndicate and was entitled to a 15th of the winnings, totalling $2,696,364 from the May 4 draw.

Justice John Sacker this morning found there had been two distinct syndicates and Mr Adams bought the ticket in May lotto only using funds he received from the winning syndicate members with no contribution from Mr King.

The court heard that Mr King was a regular contributor to the lotto syndicate which entered into the Powerball draw at his former workplace.

But Mr Adams initiated a second, one-off syndicate involving 14 people on April 29. He arrived at work half an hour after Mr King had left for the day.

All of the regular factory lotto pool members, except Mr King, were included in the second syndicate.

Justice Sackar said it was clear the workmates’ “one-off syndicates did not always include the members of the core syndicate of the time”.

He said “participation (was) totally left to (Mr Adams’) discretion”.

“(Mr Adams was) under no fiduciary obligation as alleged by the plaintiff and was therefore not in breach of any such duty,” Justice Sackar said.

“Likewise, I do not regard him as contractually bound as alleged by the plaintiff nor was he in breach of any implied contractual term.

“Further, in my view, the estoppel case is not tenable. I am also of the view that the pooling case must fail. Consequently, the plaintiff fails in these proceedings.”

Earlier, Shine Lawyers’ Luke Whiffen, who represented Mr King, said “we take Mr King to be an honest, hardworking man and we hope the Court recognises the truth in his claim”.

The Powerball winnings have already been paid to the “lucky 14” winners, with $2.7 million set aside pending the outcome of the hearing.

Mr King previously told the court he was a regular contributor to the Powerball Jackpot, organised by Mr Adams.

Mr King said he believed he was part of the winning syndicate and was shocked to discover the day after the draw that he wasn’t included.

The $2.7 million has been frozen pending the outcome of the case.

The court heard that Mr King still works for the same company, but is now at a different plant.

megan.palin@news.com.au