How To Rip Off and then Crush a Successful International Artist, Park West Gallery Style:
Part 3
by
Fine Art Registry®
Part 3. Back Against Odds. (It's not Over Yet.)
Quick as Park West's lawyers were to take advantage of Alex Perez's situation, they were not so quick to ensure that he received the court's orders. These papers were never properly served.
In February 2005 a default was entered against Alex Perez (despite the fact that he had not been served the previous motion from the Plaintiffs and knew nothing of it), and a final judgment was entered on June 20th, 2005, again unbeknownst to Alex Perez.
In the meantime, the sale of unauthorized prints continued unabated. Alex Perez posted new information on the internet about the situation so that people would be informed as to the continuation of the situation with regard to the sale of unauthorized prints bearing digitally faked signatures.
Alex Perez had managed to get together some money (loaned by family and friends) in order to take legal action against Rami Rotkopf and Park West Gallery so as to obtain relief from the abuses that these two entities had perpetrated against him as outlined in Part 1 and 2 of this series of articles, and was trying to find a lawyer who would take up his case with a view to suing Park West Gallery and Rami Rotkopf.
After being ignored by many, he finally got a response from Philip Allen III of Garbett, Stiphany, Allen & Roza P.A. of Miami. Alex Perez sent Allen a letter with his ideas of his case against Park West Gallery and Rami Rotkopf.
Alex Perez detailed for Allen his accusations against Park West and Rotkopf, his intentions being to use the $10,000 to pay Allen to sue Park West and Rotkopf for their abuses of his author's rights (some spelling and grammatical errors have been corrected for sake of clarity).
MY ACCUSATIONS TO THOSE THREE ENTERPRISES
Forgeries and Misappropriation of my artistic signature and images of my original paintings.
Unauthorized use of my artwork images.
Distortions of the original images of my paintings.
The removal and deletion of my signature from my original images of my paintings and the visual damage to the original artistic image of the original artwork.
Unauthorized use of my signature and the unauthorized use of "signed in the plate".
Unauthorized print and sales of edition of 9500 prints and OPEN editions too, editions of prints that are not included in the agreement between me and Smart Publishing Inc.
The exhibition of certificates of authenticity added to unauthorized editions of prints with a facsimile signature prematurely to my death or the possibility to sign by myself.
The use of appraisal to the unauthorized prints named "seriolithographs" ("Supposed" to be given away for free) – what is the purpose of appraisals to gifts?
The fraud to the public with my artwork, name and reputation.
The inducement of the public to create a underground market with my artwork. (Appraisals to products supposed to be for free or without price)
The creation of a unfair market and unfair trade with my artwork, from which I never got any profit.
The non-fulfillment of the contract work, the agreement and the evil distortion of the contract by Smart Publishing Inc. in society with Park West Gallery and Fine Art Sales Inc.
The Criminal use of the agreement.
The organization to do a forgery and defraud with my artwork by three enterprises.
The damages to my artistic reputation, financial situation and personal mental and physical damages consequences of the damages to my artistic and personal reputation.
The creation of a criminal and multi-million underground market with those thefts, forgeries and frauds of my artwork images, my artistic signature, my name and reputation as an honest and pacific person too.
In his research, Allen discovered the default judgment against Alex Perez. Rather than take action against Park West and Rami Rotkopf, Allen opined that the $10,000 would go towards his defense of Alex Perez in the case filed by Park West Gallery against him. This is clear from the retainer letter sent by Philip Allen III to Alex Perez on 7 August 2006 in which there is no mention of any suit against Rotkopf and Park West but simply the defense against Park West in the case already mentioned.
In order to resolve the matter, Allen filed the following Motion to Set Aside Default and Vacate Final Judgment for Permanent Injunction on 9 August 2006.
Alex Perez provided the following affidavit.
Although we don't have the judge’s order refusing to set aside Park West's complaint on the basis the Alex Perez's original defense did not challenge the court's jurisdiction in the case (it would appear that the Miami court's jurisdiction was questionable at best).
Park West proposed dismissing the case without prejudice if Alex Perez would sign a release waiving the right to sue them for everything they had done. Philip Allen III advised Alex Perez to accept their terms. What exactly he did with the $10,000 he took from Alex Perez to prosecute his case against Rami Rotkopf and Park West is not clear at all. It seems that his entire action was to file a motion to set aside the default and vacate and all he managed to do was set aside the default. For $10,000!!! His entire recommendation was that Alex Perez give up his case completely and surrender to Park West.
One wonders whose side Philip Allen III was on, quite in addition to how he accounted for the $10,000 he charged Alex Perez in order to accomplish virtually nothing in his defense and absolutely nothing in accomplishing the abused and victimized artist's aims. But he was extremely successful in relieving said artist from the $10,000, his last resources for righting the wrongs perpetrated by Rami Rotkopf and Park West Gallery. Perhaps Allen and Burlington were regular partners on the golf course and spent a lot of time fishing together, these being the publicly acknowledged pastimes of that fine specimen of his Florida SuperLawyers counterpart.
Fortunately Alex Perez had the good sense to sign no releases, despite the urgings of his alleged attorney, who recommended that he sign an agreement with Park West which included his own renunciation of any right to sue Park West for anything they had done to him. They, in their turn would dismiss all their other claims.
The Plaintiffs then filed a motion to dismiss the remaining charges without prejudice, even though Alex Perez did not go along with any of his lawyer's suggestions.
And that is where the story stands.
But that doesn't mean that it is over.
Fine Art Registry® is following up on it.
This three-part preliminary report is simply a statement of events to date with all the documents we could find which relate to the case.
Further results of the investigation will be published.
— by Fine Art Registry®
| February 12, 2010
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