The result of this case for the plaintiff, Maria Altmann, was that she was authorized to proceed with a civil action against Austria in a U.S. federal district court for recovery of five paintings stolen by the Nazis from her relatives and then housed in an Austrian government museum. As the Supreme Court noted in its decision, Altmann had already tried suing the museum before in …
By Law Experts Attorneys - Gamsjager - Wiesflecker, Austria. Law Firm Website: https://www.law-experts.at. Call +43 512 586586. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Hannes Wiesflecker. Law Experts Attorney-at-Law Dr Hannes Wiesflecker, due to a number of years’ experience in renowned commercial law firms operating internationally, as well as his ...
· Attorney Alexander Klauser and chairman of the consumer protection association Peter Kolba, from left, speake during a joint press conference of a class action lawsuit against the Tirol regional authorities for failing in their public health duties, related to the virus outbreak in the ski-resort of Ischgl, seen as a key location from which the virus spread across Europe, in …
· Group sues Austrian govt over ski resort virus outbreak. ... a lawyer for the VSV, said one of the four cases was submitted Tuesday on behalf of relatives of a man who died as a result of COVID-19 ...
In 1999 she and her lawyer tried to sue the Austrian government. It had kept the paintings based on Adele's will in which she made a “kind request,” that Ferdinand donate the paintings to the state museum after his death, which took place in 1945.
(JTA) — When attorney E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg saw himself portrayed on the big screen by hunky Ryan Reynolds in the movie “Woman in Gold,” he immediately spotted a difference.
“Woman in Gold,” a 2015 film starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, is based on the true story of Maria Altmann, a Jewish woman who took on and won a years-long battle against the Austrian government to regain ownership of a Gustav Klimt painting of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Maria Altmann brought suit in the United States against the Republic of Austria and the Austrian National Gallery to recover six paintings by Gustav Klimt that the Nazis took during the Second World War from her Jewish relatives, Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer.
How much did the lady in gold sell for? According to an earlier agreement between Altmann and Ronald Lauder (shown in the film), Altmann sold Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135 million ($173 million today) in June 2006.
Altmann is survived by her sons, Charles, James and Peter, a daughter, Margie, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Everything was left behind and plundered by top Nazis such as Hermann Goering. Adele's diamond necklace, passed on to Maria Altmann upon her marriage, reportedly ended up decorating the neck of Goering's wife. The Klimt paintings were seized, too, only to reappear after the war in the Galerie Belvedere.
Neue Galerie New YorkPrivate collectionPortrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I/Locations
Altmann, an opera singer she married in 1937, went to Dachau to press his brother, who owned a cashmere business, to give up assets abroad. Having been released from jail, Fritz and his wife lived under house arrest. His last employment was at the Lockheed plant, where he died in 1994.
February 7, 2011Maria Altmann / Date of death
Maria Altmann, who escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna as a newlywed and returned to wage a triumphant fight to recover Gustav Klimt's iconic gold portrait of her remarkable aunt, has died. She was 94. Altmann died Monday at her Cheviot Hills home after a long illness, said family friend E. Randol Schoenberg.
Maria Altmann, who escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna as a newlywed and returned to wage a triumphant fight to recover Gustav Klimt's iconic gold portrait of her remarkable aunt, has died. She was 94. Altmann died Monday at her Cheviot Hills home after a long illness, said family friend E. Randol Schoenberg.
February 7, 2011Maria Altmann / Date of death
The beloved talk show host and television executive remained anonymous during the five-year loan arranged by her friend and fellow entertainment mogul, art collector David Geffen, who donated $100 million to MoMA in April. Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann in The Woman in Gold.
Everything was left behind and plundered by top Nazis such as Hermann Goering. Adele's diamond necklace, passed on to Maria Altmann upon her marriage, reportedly ended up decorating the neck of Goering's wife. The Klimt paintings were seized, too, only to reappear after the war in the Galerie Belvedere.
In 2003 Fagan and South African law firm Ngcebetsha Madlanga Attorneys attempted to sue Anglo American, the world's second-biggest mining company, diamond producer De Beers, Sasol Ltd., which supplies about 44 percent of South Africa's motor fuel, and Fluor Corporation, a California-based engineering company, claiming that the companies profited from South Africa's racial discrimination policies that ended in 1994. The claims were dismissed by a federal district judge in November 2004, Fagan was not allowed to represent the case.
In 1998, Gizella Weisshaus, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit against Swiss banks, opted out of that historic settlement because she felt that her attorneys were more interested in paying themselves millions of dollars, even before some of the survivors had received any money. On April 8, 1998, Weisshauss filed an attorney ethics complaint, claiming that Fagan, her lawyer at the time, held back $82,583.04 belonging to her from the estate of her deceased cousin Jack Oestreicher. Hal R. Lieberman, from Departmental Disciplinary Committee, Supreme Court, Appellate Division, responded on May 6, 1998, that in this "ongoing criminal proceeding" the outcome of the disciplinary investigation should be awaited.
New Jersey ethics officials filed a misconduct complaint before a grievance committee against Fagan on behalf of Diane Gibbons, another former client, who complained that Fagan failed to submit required papers in her personal injury case, leading to its dismissal. During the proceedings Fagan was forced to admit that he failed to withdraw from suits that he could not pursue, excusing himself with the words: "I was in over my head a lot of the time."
of Federal District Court dismissed the federal lawsuit of Mr. Ortiz, noting that Fagan, his attorney, had "failed to prosecute" it for three years and had ignored court orders. The lawsuit of Ortiz, then a 49-year-old truck driver involved in a traffic accident, started in 1994, when Fagan filed a $35 million lawsuit on his behalf in federal court in Brooklyn and State Supreme Court, but Fagan failed to pursue the case after 1996. After that, Fagan did not see, visit, or speak with his client.
In 2006, Fagan initiated legal proceedings, suing the makers of the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan for $30 million in damages, on behalf of two inhabitants of the Romanian village of Glod, Dâmbovita, for human rights violations. He planned to submit lawsuits in New York and Florida state courts, as well as in Frankfurt, Germany. Fagan said that he hoped to "teach Hollywood a very expensive lesson". The lawsuit was thrown out by US District Judge Loretta Preska in a hearing in early December 2006 on the grounds that the charges were too vague to stand up in court. Fagan planned to refile.
Claiming that the descendants of black American slaves still suffer, Fagan sued the UK's oldest insurance market Lloyd's of London for insuring ships used in the slave trade in the 1700-1800s. Fagan 's interest in financial compensation was immediately criticized by Kofi Mawuli Klu, the Chair of the Pan-Afrikan Taskforce for Internationalist Dialogue (PATFID); the Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Heritage Learning movement and member of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE): "We have to make sure that the focus does not shift from the broad, deeper understanding of reparations to just one of financial compensation, ... We see action for reparations more as an educational issue of bringing masses of people into the fight against racism."
In 2004, Fagan filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan for a non-existent group called the Association of Holocaust Victims for Restitution of Artwork & Masterpieces (AHVRAM) against Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG and other European corporate, governmental and financial institutions for $6.8 billion. The lawsuit alleged the theft of artworks and other property during World War II's Holocaust, but was dismissed by US District Court Judge Shirley Wohl Kram on Aug. 19, 2005, because Fagan failed to state any basis for federal court jurisdiction of the "frivolous" and "bad faith" lawsuit. Kram noted that the "plaintiff organization AHVRAM did not exist," Fagan's "lack of preparation and professionalism, his 'glaringly inadequate filings,' and the fact that he deceived the court". Fagan's failure to pay the more than $350,000 in fines and litigation costs to the Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG led to his bankruptcy and disbarment.
The Austrian Jurisdiction Act ( Jurisdiktionsnorm) which determines the competence and organisation of courts. The Austrian Code of Civil Procedure ( Zivilprozessordnung) wich provides the procedural framework for court litigation and arbitration. The enforcement of judgments, arbitral awards, and preliminary remedies is governed by ...
The limitation periods are part of substantive (and not procedural) law and thus regulated in the Austrian Civil Code ( Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) and specialised substantive laws. The default statute of limitations is 30 years which applies unless a right is governed by a specific other limitation periods.
Furthermore, if the defendant does not file a statement of defence in due time or a party fails to appear at the oral hearing, the other party may request a default judgment. The request sought by the party (claim or dismissal thereof) will then be granted unless the court considers them entirely unfounded.
If the court determines at the outset that the formal prerequisites for the claim are not met, the claim may be dismissed immediately. Such prerequisites are eg jurisdiction of the Austrian courts, capacity of the parties to sue and be sued.
Depending on the amount in dispute and the subject matter of the dispute, the district and regional courts act as the first instance, appeals are made to either the regional or higher regional courts. The third and final instance is the Austrian Supreme Court.
The Austrian court system consists of district courts ( Bezirksgericht ), regional courts ( Landesgericht ), higher regional courts ( Oberlandesgericht) and one supreme court ( Oberster Gerichtshof ). Depending on the amount in dispute and the subject matter of the dispute, the district and regional courts act as the first instance, ...
In response to and for the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Austrian legislator allowed for oral hearings to be conducted via Zoom, provided neither party objected thereto. In the beginning of the pandemic oral hearings were regularly postponed.
Turkish Businessman Arrested in Austria on Charges that He Allegedly Laundered Over $133 Million in Fraud Proceeds. A Turkish businessman was arrested in Austria on June 19, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. This arrest followed a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, on April 28, ...
The indictment further charges Korkmaz with 10 counts of wire fraud. As alleged, Korkmaz devised a scheme to defraud Jacob Kingston and Isaiah Kingston by falsely representing that he could provide them with protection, through unnamed government officials, from a federal grand jury investigation and civil lawsuits.
The United States will seek to extradite Korkmaz to the United States so that he can appear before U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish of the District of Utah to face these charges.
According to the superseding indictment, Korkmaz laundered over $133 million in fraud proceeds through bank accounts that he controlled in Turkey and Luxembourg. The proceeds allegedly related to a scheme by Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston, and Levon Termendzhyan to defraud the U.S. Treasury by filing false claims for over $1 billion in refundable ...
An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The avant-garde of the Austrian capital included the composer Arnold Schoenberg. (The lawyer who handled Altmann's case was E Randol Schoenberg, the composer's grandson. Ryan Reynolds portrays him in the film.)
She had just married opera singer Fritz Altmann and her uncle had given her Adele's diamond earrings and a necklace as a wedding present. But the Nazis stole them from her — the stunning necklace she wore on her wedding day was sent to Nazi leader Hermann Göring as a present for his wife.
The Altmanns then fled to America and ultimately settled in California.
He died of a broken heart.”. Of course, the Nazis seized all of Ferdinand's assets, which included his vast art collection. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I became known as Woman in Gold, as well as a symbol of all that the family had lost.
The titular character in Woman in Gold is Adele Bloch-Bauer, whose husband, ...
Altmann said her Aunt Adele had always wanted her golden portrait in a public gallery. Ronald Lauder , a businessman and philanthropist who had loved Adele's face from boyhood, happily paid $135 million to enshrine her in his Neue Galerie in Manhattan. At the time, it was the largest sum ever purchased for a painting.
For many years, Altmann had assumed that the Austrian National Gallery had taken possession of the Klimt paintings. But when she was 82, she learned from the tenacious Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin that the title to the paintings was hers, and she vowed to get them back.
The Court also highlighted the Kaardal’s lackluster attempt to serve the named defendants or request a hearing as further evidence the suit was frivolous.
Boasberg , who last month ordered Kaardal to submit a Declaration to the court explaining why he should not be referred to the committee, provided a litany of reasons for the decision in a four-page order that categorized the Kaardal’s complaint as little more that “political grandstanding.”.
It is fanciful that counsel needed to worry whether states would in fact take the allegedly unlawful action of certifying their election results without the state legislature’s involvement, as state statutes required them to do just that.