Litigation
Ca. Litig. Rev. 2020
Content
- 2020 Adr Case Review
- Appeals and Writs
- Class Actions: the Many-Headed Hydra of App-Based Driver Classification
- Employment Law: Statutory and Regulatory Changes
- Ethics
- Evidence - Appellate Court Standards of Proof
- Evidence - Trial Court Burdens of Proof
- Insurance Law
- Intellectual Property
- Justice Carol a. Corrigan
- Masthead
- Military and Veterans in the Law, 2020
- Table of Contents
- Art Law
Art Law
By Simon J. Frankel & Sean Howell
There were several cases concerning art law in 2020 that should be of interest to California litigators. A long-running legal battle over rights to a Nazi-looted Pissarro painting concluded with a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Spanish government was not required to return the painting, though the court chided Spain for not doing so voluntarily. In a separate case, the Ninth Circuit held that a gallery had a viable defamation claim against a person who had asserted that a painting was not by the artist the gallery claimed, reversing the district courtâs finding for the defendant on summary judgment. Finally, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected a motion to dismiss copyright claims brought by a photographer who took an iconic image of Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, holding among other points that, despite the photographâs popularity, the question of when the photographer learned that his rights were being infringed by the photographâs reproduction could not be resolved on a motion to dismiss.
After Fifteen-Year Legal Battle, Ninth Circuit Affirms Spanish Foundationâs Right to Keep Nazi-Looted Pissarro Painting
A long-running dispute over a painting by the French Impressionist Camille Pissarro that had been stolen by the Nazi regime in 1939 came to an end when the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district courtâs judgment in favor of the defendant.1 The Ninth Circuit panel chided the Spanish government for not returning the painting, but held such an outcome was not dictated by Spanish law.