Four Judgments Against Park West Gallery for Fraudulent Sale of Fake and Overpriced Art in Lawsuits Filed by Their Customers

Fine Art Registry® Press Release

FOUR JUDGMENTS AGAINST PARK WEST GALLERY FOR FRAUDULENT SALE OF FAKE
AND OVERPRICED ART IN LAWSUITS FILED BY THEIR CUSTOMERS

(Detroit, MI, USA — 21 January 2010)   Four judgments against Park West Gallery, sued by customers who claimed they had been defrauded by the Michigan art gallery, were handed down by the Honorable Nanci J. Grant, Circuit Court Judge of the Oakland County Michigan Circuit Court today, awarding the Plaintiffs damages of close to $9,000 against Park West for artwork they purchased at art auctions on cruise ships or by direct sale by Park West Gallery in Michigan and dismissing with prejudice multi-million counter-claims by Park West against their customers. Don Payton of Kaufman, Payton & Chapa, the Michigan based attorneys representing the Plaintiffs suing Park West Gallery, explained today's judgments and their ramifications:

"On 11/17/09 the Oakland County plaintiffs' case against Park West Gallery went to case evaluation in front of a three attorney panel to determine what they believed the case should settle for. After an approximately one and one half hour hearing, the panel awarded the plaintiffs various amounts, and further, awarded Park West $0 on all of its counter-claims. The parties had 28 days in which to accept or reject these awards. The plaintiffs accepted all of the awards, while Park West only accepted four of them. These included both the claims and counter-claims involving Albert and Vivian Best, Cheryl Crist and Deborah Austin. Notice of these results were sent to all attorneys by the court on December 16, 2009.

"Pursuant to Michigan Court Rules, MCR 2.403(M)(1), a judgment is to be entered (in this case against Park West) in accordance with the evaluation unless the amount of the award is paid within 28 days after notification of acceptance. Since Park West did not pay the accepted amounts within the 28 day window, a judgment was duly entered against them by Judge Nanci Grant of the Oakland County Circuit Court for the four plaintiffs.

"This judgment disposes of all the claims of these four Plaintiffs against Park West in the action, meaning that these Plaintiffs' claims are judged to be true and the counter-claim rendered meritless.

"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.

"How this will affect the Federal defamation case remains to be seen, but we will argue that these judgments show that the statements made by FAR® in its reporting, are true and amount to collateral estoppel!" [Collateral Estoppel is a legal doctrine that prevents a person from relitigating an issue.]

The judge's orders also make it clear that these orders do not dispose of the cases that these same plaintiffs filed against Park West Gallery CEO Albert Scaglione and Gallery Director Morris Shapiro which are still due to go to trial.

It is clear from the judge's orders that the case evaluation acceptance and these judgments mean that Park West's multi-million dollar counter-claims against Al Best and Deborah Austin are dismissed with prejudice (meaning that Park West cannot sue them again on the same claim). The case evaluation for Park West's counter-claims was ZERO.

This is a significant step in the ongoing litigation between Park West Gallery and its customers and others who have become involved.

Read the Judgments:

ABOUT KAUFMAN, PAYTON & CHAPA:
Founded in 1975, Kaufman, Payton & Chapa, now has offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit and Grand Rapids and represents clients throughout the state of Michigan. Known for the aggressiveness and tenacity of it attorneys and its results-oriented approach to cases, the firm represents clients in trial and appellate matters large and small. For more information visit www.kaufmanlaw.com or contact Jonathan H. Schwartz – (248) 626 5000 .

ABOUT FINE ART REGISTRY:
Fine Art Registry® is today's only high tech solution to the age old problems that have existed in the art world since before the Ancient Greeks: How to establish provenance, prove authenticity and ownership, prevent forgery and fakery, deter theft and, basically, make it possible to create, buy and sell works of art with the security of knowing that they are what they claim to be. Full information on FAR® and how the system of tagging and registering art is available at www.FineArtRegistry.com.

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