Well-Digger Sues Trivial Pursuit

He insists the idea for a trivia-based board game was his.

But David Wall does concede he hadn't worked out the rules or the game's design when he was picked up while hitchhiking 20 years ago.

The driver, he contends, was Christopher Haney, one of Trivial Pursuit's credited inventors.

Wall is suing Haney and his partner, Scott Abbott.

He filed suit in 1994, but the case has been delayed since then by lengthy discovery hearings and countless court applications, hearings and appeals.

During cross-examination yesterday in a Sydney, Nova Scotia, courtroom, the 46-year-old well-digger said he believed at the time that his idea for a board game was marketable.

Wall said the physical details of the game were laid out on a cold night in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, in 1979 after he was picked up by Haney.

Wall credits Haney and Abbott for bringing the game to market, but feels he and friend Donnie Campbell should be included in its conception.

Haney and Abbott both contend the chance meeting never occurred.