Park West Gallery Litigation Update #9:

Michigan Court Judge Enters Multiple Formal Judgments Against Park West Gallery

Read the previous Park West Gallery Litigation Updates | Read the Press Release

Park West Gallery Clobbered - Judgments Equal Huge Victory for Fine Art Registry® and Park West Victims

Judge Nanci Grant of the Circuit Court for the County of Oakland, Michigan entered four formal Judgments on January 21, 2010 against the besieged Park West Galleries, Inc. in favor of four victims, Plaintiffs Cheryl Crist, Deborah Austin, Al Best, and Vivian Best. We have posted the Judgments in their entirety.

Our members and readers will recall in Litigation Update No. 5, we explained the case evaluation process by the Michigan State Court in the section of the update titled, "Park West Gallery Down for the Count".

The Judgments formally entered are extraordinarily significant and are a huge blow for the self-proclaimed "largest art gallery" on the planet and not necessarily for the reasons you may think. It is not necessarily the monetary aspect of these Judgments that is most important, it is rather the strong message that these Judgments send to all victims of Park West Gallery who may have believed that they have little or no hope of success in prevailing against big business and to the cruise lines who believe they can escape liability altogether and continue to allow Park West Gallery to operate aboard cruise ships unrestrained and without consequences.

Park West Gallery can now add to its acclaim that it is the "world's largest art gallery" with the "largest number of Court Judgments" entered against it.

What the Judgments Really Mean for All Park West Gallery Victims Past, Present, and Future

First it is important to define exactly what a "final" judgment is. A final Judgment such as has been issued against Park West Gallery is defined by The Free Dictionary as "a decision by a court or other tribunal that resolves a controversy and determines the rights and obligations of the parties. A judgment is the final part of a court case. A valid judgment resolves all the contested issues and terminates the lawsuit, since it is regarded as the court's official pronouncement of the law on the action that was pending before it. It states who wins the case and what remedies the winner is awarded. Remedies may include money damages, injunctive relief, or both. A judgment also signifies the end of the court's jurisdiction in the case. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and most state rules of civil procedure allow appeals only from final judgments." It may very well be that Park West Gallery attempts an appeal, though their chances of success will be slim to none. We seriously doubt that the Park West Gallery lawyers have contemplated just how serious these formal Judgments really are and what they mean to their client.

The victims (Cheryl Crist, Vivian Best, Al Best, and Deborah Austin) filed claims against Park West Galleries, Inc., as well as separate and individual claims against Park West CEO Albert Scaglione and the Park West salesman, Morris Shapiro. In their Complaint, the victims alleged the following counts against Park West Galleries, Inc., Albert Scaglione, and Morris Shapiro (the complaint is published here in its entirety for all to read):

Count I - Violation of Michigan's Warranty in Fine Arts Act Statute

Count II - Fraud

Count III - Violation of the Michigan Consumer's Protection Act

Count IV - Breach of Contract

Count V - Violation of the Michigan Art Multiples Sales Act - MCLA 442.351

Count VI - Negligent Misrepresentation

Count VII - Conspiracy

Count VIII - Unjust Enrichment

Count IX - Injunctive Relief

Essentially the Judgments mean that all of the Counts as alleged by the victims in the Complaint are now transformed from allegations against Park West Gallery to valid judgments on the merits. The Judgments are final, legitimate and have resolved the controversy in favor of the victims at least as against the gallery. Their other claims against Scaglione and Shapiro remain. This also means that there can be no doubt that everything that Fine Art Registry® has written and published from day one regarding cruise ship art auctions and about the abuses of Park West Gallery can also be readily accepted as absolutely true and accurate (which has never been in doubt) as there are now formal Judgments as evidence of same. In fact, Don Payton, the senior attorney for the Plaintiffs with the law firm of Kaufman, Payton & Chapa, stated:

"As far as we are concerned, these judgments indicate exactly what we have claimed all along, that Park West sells art that is overpriced and not authentic. These judgments show that the statements made by FAR® in its reporting, are true and amount to collateral estoppel!"

To put it into layman's terms, parties may be "estopped" [to impede or prohibit] from litigating, in the future, determinations on issues made in prior actions such as what occurred here with the Judgments. The determination may be an issue of fact or an issue of law. Preclusion requires that the issue decided was actually and necessarily decided as part of a valid final judgment. And as the evidence shows, there are four formal Judgments duly entered by Judge Grant. Valid final judgments of state courts are given preclusive effect in other state and federal courts under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The application of the collateral estoppel doctrine promotes the speedy administration of justice by preventing the continuous, duplicative litigation of fruitless claims [which Park West Gallery is known for] when relitigation of them is unlikely to change the original decision made regarding them.

The Judgments entered in favor of the Plaintiffs by Judge Nanci Grant do not dispose of their claims still pending against Park West's CEO Albert Scaglione and Morris Shapiro. The Plaintiffs will most certainly, diligently pursue claims against both of these men individually and personally. It still remains to be seen whether Al and Morry will be belted with personal judgments against them at a later date.

It should be noted that Park West Gallery is still digging in its heels and fighting the claims of Plaintiffs Sharon Day and Julian Howard, Mike and Maria Vallillo, Martha Szostak and Heidi Rice. That's because the collective dollar award for the Plaintiffs by the case evaluators was much stiffer for these. The case evaluation panel awarded Sharon Day and Julian Howard $250,000, Mike and Maria Vallillo $50,000, Martha Szostak $22,000 and Heidi Rice $17,000 - a rather substantial chunk of change for a gallery evidently experiencing financial problems. Park West Gallery refused to pay these awards and have decided to take their chances at trial. Good luck, Park West - you are certain to lose. The Park West Gallery lawyers are the daftest group of legal minds we have ever encountered, which Albert Scaglione is no doubt coming to grips with as he reads this and our other litigation updates. The Park West Gallery lawyers find themselves in quite a scalding marinade these days with the "shit" comment made about their art by their hired gun (pop-gun that is), Bob Goldman, and now these Judgments being entered against Park West Gallery. The remaining claims of Crist, Al Best, Vivian Best, and Deborah Austin against Scaglione and Shapiro, as well as the entirety of the claims by Day, Howard, Vallillo, Szostak and Rice are scheduled to go to trial in the summer of 2010 - that is if Park West Gallery has the backbone to dare to take this all the way.

These Judgments pave the way for every past, present, and future Park West Gallery victim that may have a claim against the art peddler.

Judgments Entered Against Park West Mean Troubled Waters for Cruise Lines

The Judgments should also send a strong message to the cruise lines that there are turbulent times ahead if they continue to allow the con and the fraud to persist unabated aboard their ships. Further, since there is no doubt that Park West Gallery uses the cruise lines passenger lists (those passengers who register and attend the gallery's sales events aboard ship) to continue to bilk victims, the cruise lines are guilty of perpetuating the fraud on good old U.S. soil, long after the cruise is done. All of the customers that Park West Gallery hawks its artwork to during and after the cruise are derived and are generated from the cruise lines' passenger lists or manifests. All of the cruise lines on which Park West Gallery operates and especially Royal Caribbean, who was recently ordered back into the litigation in the Sharon Day and Julian Howard case, should take these recent Judgments very seriously as now there is no doubt that formal Judgments against its business partner, Park West Gallery, have been entered. We believe it is only a matter of time before the cruise lines will suffer the same fate.

Based on Judge Grant's Judgments, the Plaintiffs' Complaint correctly and accurately reflects that Royal Caribbean (and quite potentially other cruise lines that Park West serves) committed fraud, concealed and conspired, and were unjustly enriched by acting in concert with and through its business partner, Park West Gallery, and as the Complaint states, Royal Caribbean "was knowingly complicit in allowing the false material representations to be made to Plaintiffs [by Park West Gallery]" and that "all Defendants knew that these material representations were false" and that the Defendants "made these material representations (and/or were complicit in them being made) with the intent that Plaintiffs would act on them, namely, so that Plaintiffs would purchase the artwork."

Judge Nanci Grant has adjudicated (decided) these claims in the final Judgments entered for Plaintiffs Cheryl Crist, Deborah Austin, Al Best and Vivian Best. This opens the door far and wide for every buyer of Park West Gallery artwork to come forward and make valid claims against the cruise lines for the conspiracy.

Judgments Entered Mean that the Park West Gallery "Prostitute" Bernard Ewell is Sunk

Now for one of the key accomplices in the entirety of the mess of fraud, deceit and deceptive trade practices forwarded by Park West Gallery and the cruise lines - the infamous Bernard Ewell of Bernard Ewell Art Appraisals, LLC. We are certain that Park West Gallery would have liked to find a way to throw Ewell under the bus months ago - but now these Judgments add a new level of angst or torment for Park West Gallery as it relates to its sweetheart authenticator, Ewell. There's not much they can do. Park West is stuck with him. This so-called "expert" is running rogue and Park West has little or no control over this nut.

Ewell has become a pariah for Park West Gallery on a variety of levels, though they will never admit it. To do so would instantly call into question every Dali print they have sold in the last decade or more. Park West Gallery has now removed all active links from its web site to Bernard Ewell and his moronic blog - the blog that slanders and defames Fine Art Registry, world experts, Descharnes, Hunter and the world's leading auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's, calling them "pirates" and "highway men." Ewell also stands to answer on the witness stand (in accordance with a Federal Court Order, dated December 17, 2009) regarding his numerous, defamatory and slanderous statements he has made (and continues to make) on behalf of sugar daddy, Park West concerning Fine Art Registry and Fine Art Registry experts. Additionally, it is important to mention too that in the same Federal Court Order, Park West Gallery lawyer, Jaye Quadrozzi (Young & Susser), will also be called to the witness stand to testify and answer for her part in the defamatory statement she made against Fine Art Registry and Fine Art Registry writer David Phillips. How embarrassing it must be for Park West Gallery to have its own lawyer testify as to how she defamed Fine Art Registry—so, no immunity for Park West lawyer, Quadrozzi. She will be on the hot seat come trial time.

The artwork purchased by victims Cheryl Crist and Deborah Austin were found by experts, Nicolas Descharnes, Frank Hunter, William Flynn, and award-winning Michigan gallery owner, Roy Saper, to be forged, and for the other Plaintiffs, the Dali prints, in addition to having forged signatures, are inauthentic images and are severely damaged. Therefore, the Judgments for Crist and Austin are the death knell for the so-called "opinions" of the infamous Bernard Ewell who has acted as the Park West Gallery lone Dali appraiser that authenticated the bulk of the Park West Gallery Dali inventory.

Ewell is nothing more than what is kindly termed in the legal arena as a highly paid "prostitute" for his lord and master Park West Gallery. As it relates to the Park West Gallery Dali inventory his opinions have absolutely NO BASIS in fact, and cannot be relied on. In our opinion, the "expert reports" that Ewell has issued to Park West and which Park West Gallery uses to support and to trick unsuspecting cruise passengers into believing in the authenticity of its Dali print inventory are simplistic, insufficient, woefully unprofessional, and are nothing more than puffery or fluff promoted by the gallery.

Should formal complaints be filed against Ewell with the American Society of Appraisers for his violations (and continued violations) as it relates to the Park West Gallery Dali inventory? We believe so. However, it is rare that any appraisal organizations (including the American Society of Appraisers) enforce ethics, institute, or take any disciplinary actions against their members, but they should. The appraisal market is largely unregulated, and appraisers like Ewell run unbridled and unchecked. Allowing him to continue on without disciplinary action (at least as it relates to Park West Dali inventory) is shameful.

Needless to say, this is a Titanic of a win for Fine Art Registry and the victims on a variety of levels. We are certain that the wacky Park West Gallery lawyers (Botch & Bungle) have already reported these judgments to Albert Scaglione. There is little doubt that he will excoriate each and every one of his legal beagles.

Soon it will be a run on the bank.

Coming Soon. Litigation Update No. 10.

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— by Fine Art Registry®  |  January 25, 2010

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