Boies Schiller Flexner obtained a rare GVR—granting of a petition for certiorari, vacating the judgment below, and remanding to the lower court—for client David Cassirer.
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated a ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that a Spanish government museum is not obligated to return a painting stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family represented by BSF. The court ordered the Ninth Circuit to reconsider the Cassirer family’s lawsuit in light of a new California law enacted to facilitate claims by rightful owners to recover stolen artworks from museums and dealers, including art looted during the Holocaust.
Plaintiff David Cassirer is the great-grandson of Holocaust survivor Lilly Neubauer, from whom the painting was stolen as she was fleeing Germany in 1939. The painting is now held by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which has refused to return the painting during 20 years of litigation, which will now continue in the lower courts.
This is the second BSF victory before the Supreme Court in this case in three years. In 2022, after full briefing and oral argument, BSF won 9-0 decision on a case-dispositive choice-of-law issue interpreting the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Several media outlets reported on the decision and include statements by the attorneys. Please see links below.
The New York Times: Supreme Court Revives Long-Running Nazi Art Restitution Case
Law360: Supreme Court Vacates Ruling On Nazi-Looted Art Dispute
Law360: Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
The Washington Post: Supreme Court revives Jewish Family’s Quest for Painting Looted by Nazis
Daily Journal: Supreme Court Sends Nazi-Looted Art Case Back to 9th Circuit
Law & Crime: Supreme Court Saves Family’s Fight to Recover Art Looted by Nazis