Lawsuit filed over unclaimed $63 million lottery ticket

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- California lottery officials say a 63-million dollar jackpot will be forfeited Thursday night unless someone brings a winning ticket forward.

A Los Angeles area man says he is the rightful winner and even filed a lawsuit against the company yesterday. But California Lottery officials say there's no proof the real winner has come forward.

A $63 million ticket sold at a 7-Eleven in Chatsworth is now he center of legal battle. A lawsuit filed by Brandy Milliner on Wednesday says he tried to claim winnings but was rejected after his ticket was too damaged.

California Lottery Officials say the winner bought it last year on August 8th and hasn't come forward yet.

"There's no record of a claim, there's no record of a denial. So we're at the point where if this person did file a claim we would look into it but at this point we have no record of it," said Alex Traverso, California Lottery.

Milliner says in the lawsuit the lottery office took his ticket and gave him a photocopy, and when he tried to get his lottery ticket back one month ago, the lotto office refused. When reporters showed up to his attorney's office for an interview, all signs of the law office were taken down and Milliner suddenly refused to talk to media.

California Lottery officials say at this point there's no proof Milliner actually has the winning lottery ticket. So that $63-million is still up for grabs until 5 p.m. Thursday night. If no one brings a winning SuperLotto Plus ticket forward, all the money will go into California's education fund.