Six Blistering Amended Complaints Filed Against Park West Gallery, its Sea of Accomplices and the Cruise Lines
And More Stormy Seas for Royal Caribbean
"Park West has orchestrated a sophisticated and widespread criminal scheme and
enterprise that Charles Ponzi would be proud of. The core element of the scheme is selling art at materially inflated prices. The scheme targeted Class members who, while relaxing on their vacations, are wined and dined by Park West and Cruise Line employees, and subjected to the Defendants' art fraud scheme. Tens of thousands of paintings [artwork] have been sold as part of the scheme's operation. A number of phony devices are used to sell phony and materially overvalued art with worthless Appraisals to unsuspecting victims."
Steve W. Berman, Esq.
HAGENS BERMAN SOBOL SHAPIRO LLP
Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs and the Class
The Class Action suits filed by victims Sean Mullen and Bruce Alleman were recently transferred from Michigan to the Western District of Washington Federal Court on December 29, 2009. This now makes a total of SIX Nationwide Class Actions now before the Honorable Robert S. Lasnik in the PARK WEST GALLERIES, INC., MARKETING AND SALES PRACTICES LITIGATION.
Royal Caribbean a Fish Out Water in Michigan and Washington
Defendant Royal Caribbean isn't taking kindly to the fact that the Mullen and Alleman cases were moved to Washington State, and protested by filing a motion with the court to prevent it. Royal Caribbean vigorously opposed the transfer arguing that the transfer of the Alleman and Mullen cases to the State of Washington "would run afoul of forum selection clauses" in the victims' "cruise ticket contracts, which specify that any litigation related thereto must commence in Miami, Florida." Read our article on the "cruise contract" and how Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines use and brandish this legal mumbo-jumbo to conveniently escape victims' valid claims about artwork they purchased from the cruise lines' business partner, Park West Gallery - artwork that has been determined by experts to be forged, fake and often worthless. Thankfully, the Court DISAGREED with Royal Caribbean's argument and ordered as follows, in part:
We respectfully disagree with this argument [by Royal Caribbean]. When civil actions satisfy the criteria set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 1407 (a), the statute authorizes the Panel to centralize those actions (as well as any subsequently identified tag-along actions) in "any district." "[C]ontractual forum selection clauses do not limit the Panel's authority with respect to the selection of transferee district," or, by the same token, our authority to transfer tag-along actions to an existing MDL (Multidistrict Litigation)....
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, these two actions are transferred to the Western District of Washington and, with the consent of that court, assigned to the Honorable Robert S. Lasnik for inclusion in the coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings occurring there in this docket.
Read the entire Court Order which is posted below in its entirety.
What is a "Forum Selection Clause" and why are Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines so concerned about where victims litigate or file suit in a case?
A forum selection clause is a clause in an agreement by which the parties stipulate (actively or passively) to the forum (a place/state of jurisdiction where lawsuits are pursued) in which any disputes arising between them will be resolved. We have all been subject at one time or another to the "fine print", the "disclaimers" or the "gotcha" language in contracts. In other words, it's the boilerplate language that we know we should read (such as homeowner insurance policies), but we rarely do. It's a unilateral or one sided arrangement - meaning that it is NON-NEGOTIABLE. In other words, you cannot take a cruise without purchasing a ticket. Once the ticket is purchased it becomes your contract with the cruise line. If you don't like what you are agreeing to by purchasing it - tough! Like it or lump it, you're stuck simply by virtue of its purchase. Naturally, this "gotcha" language is only invoked when a claim is made by victims against the cruise lines. It is at this time that the cruise passenger, who trusted in the cruise line brand, is sucker punched and is suddenly confronted with the fact that he or she has no rights at all, and that all rights are waived to litigate anywhere but in the State of Florida (at least in the case of Royal Caribbean). Why in the state of Florida? It's very simple. This is one of the only states in the U.S. where the laws are specially designed and/or legislated to heavily favor the cruise lines and where the cards or the odds are stacked against claimants.
To make it crystal clear, we reference an excellent article written by Ira H. Leesfield, a senior managing partner at Leesfield Leighton & Partners, P.A. in Miami, Florida, titled Litigating Cruise Line Cases in the 21st Century.
Lessfield states in part:
Cruise ships are not merely common carriers, they are virtual floating cities. These floating cities, however, lack fundamental safety policies, protocols, and procedures to protect passengers from harm. In addition, antiquated laws and contractual language limiting rights and remedies, puts travelers in a precarious position. As one judge stated, the lesson to be learned from over a hundred years of non-evolving case law and confusion regarding limitations on rights and remedies, is essentially the following: 'Don't have an accident, don't get sick, and hope for an uneventful cruise vacation, otherwise you will discover that your rights and remedies as an aggrieved consumer are governed by antiquated legal principles which favor cruise lines to the detriment of cruise passengers.'
Unless a passenger can meet the high burden of proving fraud or a patently unfair situation, a forum selection clause in a cruise ticket contract must be enforced.
Fine Art Registry® has ample evidence of the fraud (and of RICO violations) being committed aboard cruise ships by Park West Gallery and we also have evidence that the cruise lines have been fully aware of the fraud for some time but have ignored the issues and turned a blind eye in favor of greed. It's only a matter of time before all of the evidence that Fine Art Registry has gathered over the last three years which we have been sharing with law enforcement officials right along, will also be available to our members who wish to prosecute claims against Park West Gallery and the cruise lines.
For the time being anyway, Royal Caribbean is now stuck in the State of Washington and in the State of Michigan in a separate action (not a class action suit) in the Sharon Day and Julian Howard litigation - two unlikely and uncomfortable forum venues for Royal Caribbean.
Now for Highlight of This Update
On January 15, 2010, the nationwide class action lawyers filed six newly amended complaints against Park West Galleries, Inc. and Albert Scaglione's empire of affiliated companies as well as against many of the cruise line companies that Park West Gallery has working relationships with, including Royal Caribbean who has been pounded recently by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The Amended Complaints currently name the following Defendants as those responsible for the deception and the fraud:
Defendants Park West Galleries, Inc. d/b/a Park West Gallery
PWG Florida, Inc.
Fine Art Sales, Inc.
Vista Fine Art, LLC d/b/a Park West at Sea
Holland America Line, Inc.
Holland America Line – USA, Inc.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Celebrity Cruises, Inc.
Carnival Corporation
Carnival plc
and [John and Jane] DOES I through X (meaning that the class action Plaintiffs' lawyers can add other Defendants as responsible parties any time in the future or in accordance with the rules of the Court).
For violations of:
The Racketeer Influenced and Organization Corruption Act or (RICO)
Future Defendants in the nationwide class action lawsuits as well as other lawsuits that may be filed soon might include, for example, the following:
William "Bill" Smith, an accomplice and long-standing senior management employee with Park West Gallery who is responsible for the acquisition of the bulk of the Dali print inventory and the sale of the Rembrandt plates to Park West Gallery (you know, the ones they lied to customers about NOT owning). Smith is at the heart of the Dali and Rembrandt scam, but Park West Gallery has locked him in a closet and thrown away the key.
The infamous Bernard Ewell and Caroline Ashleigh - both certified appraisers (whose certifications should be revoked) who willingly participated and were (and still may be) used to further the scheme and deception by Park West Gallery and the cruise lines.
Philippe du Noyer of GPL Promotions in New York City who arranged the sale of huge amounts of the spurious Park West Gallery Dali inventory through a man named Jean Jacques Biagini, a European art dealer and exclusive (as well as illusive) agent for the Albaretto Family in Turin, Italy.
Another shady character, one from whom Park West Gallery has purchased thousands of Dali prints over the years, is an individual named Daniel David, who also just happens to serve as one of Park West Gallery's experts in a separate ongoing litigation. Like Bernard Ewell, Caroline Ashleigh, and the others, Daniel David is beholden to Park West Gallery and all of them have substantial financial ties to the gallery in one form or another. Not a single one of them is independent, unbiased or impartial.
Another art dealer who is also seriously associated with this fraud is a man named Cyril Boisson, who sold thousands upon thousands of spurious Dali prints to Park West Gallery, all sourced from another atrociously unscrupulous source known as Marc Ways (who is completely unknown to ANYONE in the Dali world). All of these European sources are murky, underworld types and are as slick and slippery as a greased door knob, virtually impossible to trace or track down, just like the so-called far-fetched "provenance" or the so-called "attestations" that Park West Gallery has produced (and much of it very recently we might add) from these individuals. It is abundantly clear from the documents we have obtained in our three years of investigation that Park West Gallery (and its ring of suppliers) manufactures, fabricates, and creates much of the documentation as they go along. With Park West Gallery it's "Provenance on Demand."
Six Stinging New Amended Class Action Complaints
It is important to put into perspective the sheer number of victims that will be associated with the class action lawsuits and other individual lawsuits that will be filed nationwide. There will be hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands more claimants soon. All of the victims are cruise passengers (or former cruise passengers as the case may be after having been reamed by Park West Gallery and the cruise lines) and many of them repeat cruisers on whom the cruise lines rely for survival. When will the cruise lines wake up to the fact that the loss of passengers aboard their cruise ships is also a huge loss to their shareholders (those that are publicly traded companies anyway)? Additionally, it is a ruinous disservice to the art industry to allow Park West Gallery to continue to flood the market with spurious art objects and to continue its con and financial rape of the public who put their trust and faith in the cruise lines. It's just bad business all the way around. Many of these victims are soured on art collecting for life after crossing paths with Park West Gallery, and on the cruise lines that set them up to be conned.
Sadly, all of the victims in these class actions are left holding forged, fake, worthless, or near worthless artwork. Fine Art Registry wishes each and every one of the nationwide class action victims well in their pursuit of compensatory damages and overall justice for the serious fraud that has been perpetrated on them and that is perpetuated and continues to be perpetuated by Park West Gallery on a daily basis aboard cruise ships worldwide.
Each Class Action Complaint is published below in its entirety. The allegations totaling hundreds of pages are scalding. All of them are worth the read! We have edited or redacted each document to black out the personal contact information of the Plaintiffs referenced on exhibits that are attached because we are all too well acquainted with Park West Gallery's proclivity for personally attacking victims through its hired legal dogs.
It will be interesting to see how Park West Gallery and the cruise lines answer these tough allegations. The Defendants certainly have their work cut out for them, especially given the mountain of evidence that Fine Art Registry has accumulated that supports these victims. We will monitor the situation closely so we can report the latest to our membership and readers:
Fine Art Registry® invites you to tune into a series of new videos featuring CEO and Founder Teri Franks as she confronts the self-proclaimed "World's Largest Art Gallery" Park West Gallery. Brought to you as it happens! Be sure to stay tuned to the cliff hanger sequences. Fine Art Registry Video - Intro to New Video Series of Litigation Updates
The views and opinions of individual authors/contributors expressed on the FAR® web site do not necessarily state or reflect those views and/or opinions of Fine Art Registry® or its agents or subsidiaries.
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