Rich,
Your understanding/interpretations/opinions of the legal precedents in a
case like this and my own clearly differ. But since neither of us are
lawyers -- and even lawyers can't usually agree what the law actually
says or means in much of the time (which is why we have juries) -- we
best leave off speculating on the legal aspects of cases that have yet
to even come to court. I suppose we'll all see what comes of it
eventually. My primary intent was not to play a lawyer on the internet,
but to point out that there are a lot of different circumstances which
could apply to the various people who may or may not be involved in
this, and that we have precious little details at this point as to who
did/said/repaid or did not repay what to whom and why.
-- JR
Richard Halegua Comic Art wrote:
Like I said, if someone made a $4,000 commission on a sale of a
$20,000 fake, then at the most that person is ethically obligated to
reimburse only the $4,000 he made on the deal, not the entire $20,000
that was paid.
And if we table the ethical obligations for a moment, legally, a
court would be unlikely to order the repayment of even the $4,000
commission if the person could demonstrate that they knew nothing
about the poster being fake and sold it "as is" with no warranty.
James
both of these statements are incorrect
if a dealer middled a piece and was the recipient of the cash from the
buyer, then he has a lawful duty to return the full $20,000
unless....
if he was acting only as an agent and he was indemnified (aka insured,
or had a waiver) then he may at that point only be responsible for the
fee he collected and as an agent.
However, the general situation would be different:
"you're looking for a Bride of Haggard card and I know someone who has
one. Your price is $20,000"
though he may be acting as a middleman, the buyer has no direct access
to the original seller and the buyer's recourse is only with the
person who sold him the item.
Further, a lack of knowledge that the item is a forgery does not
shield anyone from the civil aspects of a sale, thought it may shield
the seller from criminal aspects
it's like when you got stopped on a road going 10 miles over the speed
limit: you were speeding and to say to a judge "I was ignorant of the
speed limit on that street" will not shield you from the fine imposed.
Ignorance of the law is not a defense in the eyes of the law.
federal and state laws do not allow a seller to claim ignorance. If a
card was sold "as an original" and later found to be fake, all laws
remain in effect. The seller is directly responsible to the buyer
regardless of his position as an honest person
If I buy a forgery and sell it, the buyer has legal recourse against
me. I in turn have legal recourse against the person who sold me the
item. That seller has legal recourse against their source etc all the
way down the line until you have the person who bought directly from
Haggard or Mendez and whom has a legal and criminal case against such
persons for fraud, conspiracy etc.
Ron Magid did one deal with Kerry Haggard and so he has a case against
Haggard. He did not sue Jaime because they would have to prove Jaime
had some knowledge that Magid was being defrauded.
However, in Gresham's case, because the fraud was over an extended
period of time, it can be presumed that Jaime may have known that Jim
was being defrauded and did not speak up, thereby ending the fraud
upon discovery and that's why Gresham is able to name Mendez in his
lawsuit.
I expect that if anything I said was incorrect or misleading that Sean
will correct my text
Rich
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