Thursday, November 06, 2008

Minor Skirmishing

In the Halsey Minor-Sotheby's litigation, the parties are skirmishing over whether Minor's separate class action lawsuit in California can proceed, but, in their most recent brief, filed earlier this week, Sotheby's gets in a few jabs on the substance (all citations omitted):

"Minor argues in conclusory terms that 'because Sotheby’s employs a disclosure standard that contravenes the mandates of New York City’s auction house disclosure law, Minor has sought redress for this systematic violation on a classwide basis.' However, Minor pointedly ignores Sotheby’s discussion [in their previous brief] of 'New York City’s auction house disclosure law.' As we discussed, the New York City department of Consumer Affairs – the agency that promulgated and administers the City’s 'auction house disclosure law' – has determined that Sotheby’s 'disclosure standard' is in full compliance with that law. Minor cannot dispute that this agency determination should be enforced in accordance with well-settled law."