Friday, August 14, 2009

Lloyd Webber Dismissal Affirmed

The Appellate Division has affirmed the dismissal, on standing grounds, of a lawsuit against the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation by a man who claimed his great-uncle was forced by the Nazis to sell a Picasso painting now owned by the foundation. I discussed the lower court decision here. Am Law Litigation Daily's Alison Frankel has a good summary:

"Under New York law, the appellate division opinion says, Schoeps would have had to show that he had been appointed the personal representative of his great-uncle's estate. Instead, the record showed only that he was one of several heirs .... That's quite a different result than what Schoeps ... achieved in similar litigation [before Manhattan federal district court judge Jed Rakoff] with the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum. The state appellate court expressly rejected Rakoff's reasoning on Schoeps's standing."