AL Hirschfeld Found. v. Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd.

328 F. Supp. 3d 232
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedJuly 25, 2018
Docket16 Civ. 4135 (PAE)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 328 F. Supp. 3d 232 (AL Hirschfeld Found. v. Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AL Hirschfeld Found. v. Margo Feiden Galleries Ltd., 328 F. Supp. 3d 232 (S.D. Ill. 2018).

Opinion

Paul A. Engelmayer, United States District Judge

This decision sets out the Court's findings as to damages owed by defendants Margo Feiden ("Feiden") and the Margo Feiden Galleries, Ltd. (singly, the "Gallery," and together with Ms. Feiden, the "defendants" or "Galleries") as to two areas of contract breach with respect to which the Court has already found defendants liable. In a November 1, 2017 Opinion & Order (the "Summary Judgment Opinion"), the Court held that the Galleries had breached the settlement agreement (the "Agreement") that had long governed the relationship between the Galleries and plaintiff, the Al Hirschfeld Foundation (the "Foundation"). Specifically, the Court granted summary judgment as to liability on the Foundation's claims that the Galleries had breached the agreement by (1) failing to maintain custody over, and records for, 20 works consigned to them by the Foundation; and (2) selling giclee reproductions beyond the scope of the license afforded by the Agreement.

The parties then waived their rights to have a jury determine the damages owed for these breaches. See Dkt. 200. The Court then held an evidentiary hearing limited to those issues. The Court heard live testimony from four witnesses. For each, direct testimony was received in the form of a sworn affirmation and each was subject to live cross and redirect examination. Two were called by the Foundation: Harry L. Katz, an expert witness, see Pl. Br. Ex. 1 ("Katz Decl."); Dkt. 217 ("Rebuttal Katz Decl."), and David Leopold, the Foundation's Creative Director, see Pl. Br. Ex. 5 ("Leopold Decl."); Dkt. 216 ("Rebuttal Leopold Decl."). The Galleries called two witnesses: John Yavel, an employee of the Galleries, see Dkt. 209 ("Yavel Decl."), and Margo Feiden, see Dkt. 212 ("Feiden Decl.").1 The Court also received certain documentary evidence via the declarations of counsel. See Pl. Br. Ex. 8 ("Kaplan-Peterson *236Decl."); Dkt. 215 ("Lackman Decl.").2 Finally, the Court has also benefitted from the parties' helpful post-hearing letter briefs, in which the parties set out their respective calculations of the damages owed for unauthorized giclees. Dkt. 226 ("Pl. Post-Hr. Br."); Dkt 227 ("Def. Post-Hr. Br.").

I. Missing Works

As the Court found at summary judgment, the Galleries breached the Agreement by failing to maintain custody of 20 original Hirschfeld works, whose whereabouts the Galleries is unable to account for today. The parties have subsequently reduced the list of missing works to 19.3 These works-to which the Court and the parties refer as the "Missing Works"-are:

• "Famous Feuds: Zanuck and Greco,"
• "S.J. Perelman: Readying Myself for My Debut,"
• "Dick Shawn in the World of Sholom Aleichem,"
• "Curtis and Leigh in Houdini,"
• "Outdoor Life,"
• "Artists and Models: 300 Girls Paraded Before Monte Prosser and Wally Wanger,"
• "Hit Plays in England,"
• "Swiss Family Perelman p.6, 'Go Ahead' I shouted, 'Milk Me, Drain Me Dry,' Mr. and Mrs. S. I. Perelman,"
• "Carmen,"
• "Every Barn's a Stage: Life with Father,"
• "Checkmates,"
• "Westward Ha: Lazy Days on the Poop's Mortician, Missionary, Perelman Boy Meets Gull,"
• "Directing Minds of Russian Cinema and Theatre,"
• "The Filming of Stolen Hours a/k/a Summer Flight,"
• "Walking Happy,"
• "Duke Ellington,"
• "Dizzy Gillespie,"
• "Lorabid Doctor Waiting for a Phone Call for Eli Lilly," and
• "The Cast of 45 Seconds from Broadway."

The parties dispute the proper valuation of these works.

A. The Measure of Damages For the Works

The parties agree that the Galleries' failure to account for the Missing Works, as found by the Court, is an act of conversion under New York law. See Pl. Br. at 1; Def. Br. at 3; see also, e.g. , Thyroff v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. , 460 F.3d 400 (2d Cir. 2006).4 The parties dispute, however, how damages for such a conversion ought to be measured. The Foundation seeks to recover the market value of the works; the Galleries, on the *237other hand, argue that damages should be limited to the Foundation's lost profits. Because the Agreement provided that the Foundation would receive 50% of any profits from the Galleries' sales of the Missing Works, the Galleries argue that the Foundation's damages for the Missing Works should be 50% of their market value, not 100%.

The Court agrees with the Foundation that the market value of the works-without any discount for the Galleries' right to retain 50% of the profits-is the proper measure of damages. Under New York law, "[t]he usual measure of damages for conversion is the value of the property at the time and place of conversion, plus interest." Fantis Foods, Inc. v. Standard Importing Co. , 49 N.Y.2d 317, 326, 425 N.Y.S.2d 783, 402 N.E.2d 122 (1980). "However, lost profits are allowed where either from the nature of the article or peculiar circumstances of the case they might reasonably be supposed to follow from the conversion." Rajeev Sindhwani, M.D., PLLC v. Coe Bus. Serv., Inc. , 52 A.D.3d 674, 861 N.Y.S.2d 705, 708 (2d Dep't 2008) (internal quotations omitted). But New York law allows for the recovery of lost profits above and beyond the market value of the lost or stolen property (in certain circumstances) not as an alternative, lesser measure of damages. See id.

In any event, whether the Galleries might have sold the Missing Works, and thereby earned a commission, is of no moment here because the Agreement, which provided the Galleries their only authority to make such sales, has been terminated, for multiple reasons. And upon termination of the Agreement, all rights in consigned works-that is, 100% of their value-reverted to the Foundation.

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Bluebook (online)
328 F. Supp. 3d 232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/al-hirschfeld-found-v-margo-feiden-galleries-ltd-ilsd-2018.