Loser in $1 million bottle cap case plans appeal

Monday, Oct. 9, 2000 | 4:21 a.m.

The loser of a 2 1/2-year legal dispute over a Pepsi bottle cap worth $1 million plans to reopen the issue.

Sindy Allen has filed a notice indicating she will appeal the jury verdict that made a millionaire out of her co-worker.

A District Court jury heard two days of testimony and deliberated about one hour before deciding in July that the contest-winning bottle cap belonged to another Las Vegas woman, 46-year-old Judy Richardson.

Richardson's attorney Robert Goldstein said Allen has no basis for an appeal.

Goldstein said he didn't recall Allen's attorney objecting to any evidence in the trial or to any jury instructions.

Richardson, a self-described Pepsi addict, bought the bottle with what turned out to be the winning cap on March 17, 1998, but was too busy to drink it during her St. Patrick's Day shift at a local health food store.

After she completed her shift, Richardson left the 20-ounce bottle in her usual place - a nook near a juice machine that fellow employees testified was known to be her spot.

Richardson learned the next morning that fellow employee Allen had opened the bottle and claimed the winning "Globe Bucks" cap. The chances of winning the big prize was 545 million to 1.

Richardson confronted Allen, who said she did not know about Richardson's soda storage habits. Allen said she discovered the winning bottle while cleaning up. She asked fellow employees if the Pepsi belonged to them. Thinking it trash, she said she poured the contents down a sink.

But before throwing the empty bottle away, Allen said she noticed the bottle's winning "Globe Bucks" cap.

PepsiCo Inc. had promised to pay $50,000 in yearly installments for 20 years to whomever the eight-member jury deemed the cap's rightful owner.

"Pepsi's going forward and paying the first installment to Judy Richardson because they are abiding by the jury's verdict that Judy Richardson was the winner of the contest," Goldstein told a Las Vegas newspaper.

Parties on both sides of the case must attend a settlement conference before Allen may file her appeal brief, Goldstein said.

"We think she's grasping at straws," the attorney said.