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Ps were Judy Fitchie, Phyllis Huisel, and Frances Vincent. Phyllis Huisel and her husband, Robert, owned a combination service station and coffee shop, which they called Hitching-A-Ride. As a part of the coffee shop business, Phyllis sold lottery tickets. D started coming into the coffee shop in November 1989 to have a cup of coffee or pancakes and to socialize. Sometimes Phyllis would play the lottery with D. Phyllis indicated, but D disputed, that they would share equally in any winnings, even when only one of them supplied the money to buy lottery tickets. Judy Fitchie had known Phyllis for a number of years and sometimes helped her in the coffee shop. Judy was acquainted with D only because she saw him occasionally at Hitching-A-Ride. Phyllis and Judy were both in the coffee shop when D came in and said he wanted to play the lottery. Phyllis was behind the counter, waiting on customers. Judy, along with Frances Vincent, was sitting at the counter. D purchased lottery tickets, which needed to have the film scratched off the front of them in order to reveal whether a prize had been won. Phyllis took the money for the $100 in tickets. At some point, D asked Phyllis if she wanted to help him scratch the film off the tickets, but Phyllis suggested that he ask Judy to help because she was the luckier one. D placed a number of tickets in front of both Judy and Frances and invited them to help him scratch them off. D had not previously met Frances. All three plaintiffs testified that D indicated to them that if they would help him scratch off the lottery tickets, they would be his partners and would share in any winnings that resulted from those tickets. After scratching for some time, Judy uncovered three television sets and announced that she had a winner. The ticket scratched by Judy gave the owner a chance to compete for a $100,000 prize. A completed ticket was to be mailed to the Lottery. On Thursdays, 100 tickets were drawn from all of the winning tickets that had been mailed in. From those 100 tickets, six were drawn on the Lottery television show on Saturday, and those six ticket owners would be the contestants on the television show the following week. The grand prize in the Fortune Hunt game was $100,000, but other prizes were also awarded. A winning ticket holder would receive at least $1,500 if they appeared on the television show. D indicated he was willing to be on the television show, and, after some discussion, all the parties agreed that D should be their representative and go on television. D then printed 'F.J.P. Rick Yurko,' representing the first initial of each plaintiff and his own name, on the line provided on the back of the ticket for the name of the ticket holder. He also gave his address and phone number. D indicated he was going to put all of Ps' initials and his name on the ticket and indicated once again that they would be partners no matter what they might win. All Ps admitted that they did not pay out of their own pockets for any of the lottery tickets that were purchased that day. The ticket got to the finals, and D stopped at Hitching-A-Ride to see the Huisels. Phyllis' daughter, Sherry, testified that D gave her a nudge in the arm and said, 'We are going to be rich.'Phyllis also testified that she heard Yurko make the comment about all of them getting rich. D remarked that Judy would probably use her share to put a down payment on her house and that he was going to go to Las Vegas with his share. D won the $100,000 prize and placed only his own name on the claim form for the prize. Ps filed this suit, naming D and the Lottery as defendants, seeking a declaration of rights as to the $100,000 lottery prize, and sought damages for conversion of the prize money. The court agreed with Ps, and D appealed. D attacked the 'partnership/gift theory of recovery' in part.

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