Blumstein v. Sports Immortals, Inc.

Athanasios Karahalios sought to borrow $203,000 from Jeffrey Phillips, with the loan to be secured by a montage of photographs, baseball cards, and signatures of the original inductees to Major League Baseball’s hall of fame (montage). Phillips agreed on the condition that the montage be appraised to be worth at least $300,000. Accordingly, Karahalios, Phillips, and Blumstein (plaintiff), Phillips’s associate, visited the office of Sports Immortals, Inc. (Immortals) (defendant), which held itself out as an expert in authenticating and appraising sports memorabilia. The parties informed Immortals and its representative Joel Platt (defendant) that they were seeking an appraisal in connection with a potential loan to be secured by the montage. Platt appraised the montage as being worth between $350,000 and $400,000, based in large part on the montage’s autographs. Immortals did not charge a fee for Platt’s appraisal. Based on this appraisal, Phillips made the loan. When Karahalios defaulted on the loan, Phillips sought to sell the montage, but he was unable to do so because the autographs turned out to be inauthentic. Immortals did, however, offer to buy other memorabilia from him for $2,700. Blumstein, who acquired Phillips’s claim by assignment, sued Immortals and Platt for negligent misrepresentation in connection with Platt’s appraisal. The trial court dismissed the complaint. Blumstein appealed.