Hoffmann v. United States

17 F. App'x 980
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2001
DocketNo. 00-1131
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 17 F. App'x 980 (Hoffmann v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffmann v. United States, 17 F. App'x 980 (Fed. Cir. 2001).

Opinion

DECISION

SCHALL, Circuit Judge.

Robert Hoffmann, Susanne Hustadt, Klaus von Schirach, Heidemarie Kruger, and Henriette Hoffmann von Schirach (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) appeal the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia denying their claim with respect to certain property recovered by the United States Army at the end of World War II. Hoffmann v. United States, 53 F.Supp.2d 483 (D.D.C.1999). Billy F. Price appeals his dismissal as a plaintiff. The case grows out of Plaintiffs’ efforts to obtain the return of, or compensation for, a photographic archive and paintings formerly belonging to Heinrich Hoffmann Sr. (“Hoffmann Sr.”). Specifically, the property at issue before the district court consisted of (1) four watercolors painted by Adolph Hitler; (2) a photographic archive compiled by Hoffmann Sr. and his son, Heinrich Hoffmann Jr. (“Hoffmann Jr.”), part of which the Attorney General of the United States vested in 1951 pursuant to the Trading with the Enemy Act, 50 U.S.CApp. § 1 et seq (“TWEA”), and part of which remains non-vested but, at least allegedly, in the possession of the United States; and (3) the “Time-Life archive,” a photographic archive given to the United States in the early 1980s by Time-Life, Inc.

Hoffmann Sr. and Hoffmann Jr. are both deceased. Plaintiffs are the heirs of Hoffmann Sr.’s children, Hoffmann, Jr. (Robert Hoffmann, Heidemarie Kruger, and Susanne Hustadt) and Henriette Hoff-mann von Schirach (Klaus von Schirach, [983]*983Executor of her estate). Price, an art investor and author of a Hitler biography, became involved in the case in 1982 when he learned that Hoffmann Sr. had been the owner of the watercolors. Price paid a nominal sum to the Hoffmann heirs in exchange for their rights in the watercolors and archives, promising to seek return of the property and to give Plaintiffs a portion of whatever compensation he might receive from the United States government.

The instant case was consolidated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on October 2, 1997, from two actions brought by Price and Plaintiffs in that court, in 1989 and 1997. The Texas district court held that the conveyance of an interest in the property to Price was an improper assignment of a claim of interest against the United States in violation of the Anti-Assignment Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3727 (1994). Accordingly, on March 24, 1998, Price was dismissed as a plaintiff, and the case was transferred to the District of Columbia.

The District of Columbia district court granted summary judgment in favor of the government after rejecting Plaintiffs’ claims based on the theories of implied-in-fact contract (bailment), Fifth Amendment takings, and tortious conversion. On appeal, Plaintiffs challenge the order transferring the case to the District of Columbia (the “transfer order”) and the rulings of the district court on their claims. Price challenges the transfer order and his dismissal from the case. We decline to consider the issue of the transfer order, and with it Price’s dismissal from the case, because the issue of the transfer order was not raised in the district court. As far as the merits of the case are concerned, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment insofar as it relates to the watercolors. We also affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment with respect to the vested portion of the archive. Finally, we vacate the grant of summary judgment insofar as it relates to the non-vested portion of the archive and remand. We do so in order that the district court may determine in the first instance whether Plaintiffs’ claim relating to the non-vested portion of the archive is barred by the applicable statute of limitations. In the event that the court determines that the claim relating to the non-vested portion of the archive is not barred by the statute of limitations, it will be necessary for it to consider factual issues relating to Plaintiffs’ contention that an implied-in-fact contract arose relating to that property.1

DISCUSSION

I.

In May of 1945, the United States Army seized the portion of the Hoffmann archive that was stored in Winhoring, Germany and sent parts of what was seized to Nuremberg for use by the War Crimes Commission. On May 31, 1951, the Assistant Attorney General and Director of Alien Property executed an order vesting all right, title, interest and claim in the Nuremberg portion of the archive in the Attorney General of the United States. Plaintiffs contend that the United States Army possesses the rest of the Winhoring archive, as well as photographs seized at other locations in Germany. These are the photographs that comprise the non-vested portion of the Hoffmann archive. In addition to the photographs, the United States Army also seized the four Hitler waterco[984]*984lors. The Army transferred the watercolors to a central collecting facility in Munich, and subsequently shipped them to the United States.

II.

Together with Price, Plaintiffs brought suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1988 for the return of the watercolors and the photographs that the United States Army had seized. Alternatively, Price and Plaintiffs sought money damages for the tortious conversion of the property. Eventually, in 1989, the district court entered partial summary judgment on the issue of liability in Price’s and Plaintiffs’ favor, on the ground that the United States had wrongfully converted the property by refusing to return it. Price v. United States, (“Price I”), 707 F.Supp. 1465 (S.D.Tex.1989). Subsequently, the court awarded Price and Plaintiffs nearly $8 million in damages. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court and remanded the case for entry of judgment of dismissal with prejudice as to the claims for the watercolors and photographs, other than the Time-Life archive. Price v. United States, (“Price II”), 69 F.3d 46, 54 (5th Cir.1995). Regarding the watercolors, the court ruled that evidence in the record indicated that a tortious conversion of the paintings occurred in Germany, when the paintings were seized and shipped to the United States, not upon the United States’ refusal to return the property to the Hoffmann family. Id. at 52. Regarding the photographs, the court ruled that the vesting order placed Plaintiffs’ claim outside the United States’ waiver of sovereign immunity. Id. Additionally, the court held, any challenge to the vesting order itself was barred by the statute of limitations pursuant to 50 U.S.C. App § 33 (1988). Id. at 53. The Fifth Circuit dismissed the claim relating to the Time-Life archive without prejudice, because Price had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies under the Federal Torts Claim Act (“FTCA”), 28 U.S.C. § 2401(b) (1988). Id. On petition for rehearing, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the vesting order did not cover all of the photographs allegedly seized by the United States Army. Price v. United States, (“Price III”), 81 F.3d 520 (5th Cir.1996).

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17 F. App'x 980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffmann-v-united-states-cafc-2001.