from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
LOT. Anything on which depends the accidental determination of a right by
which we acquire or lose something; or it is that which fortuitously
determines what we are to acquire. When it can be certainly known what are
our rights, we ought never to resort to a decision by lot; but when it is
impossible to tell what actually belong to us, as if an estate is divided
into three parts and one part given to each of three persons, the proper way
to ascertain each one's part is to draw lots. Wolff, Dr. &c., de la Nat.
Sec. 669.