Hicks v. Leslie Feeley Fine Arts, LLC and John Doe

1:20-cv-1991(ER) (2021)

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Hicks v. Leslie Feeley Fine Arts, LLC and John Doe

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
1:20-cv-1991(ER) (2021)

SC

Facts

Marianne Hicks (plaintiff) and renowned abstract painter Friedel Dzubas were engaged in a romantic relationship and lived together. As Dzubas’s health declined, his family pushed Hicks out of the couple’s shared house. After Dzubas’s death, a painting hanging in the house thought to be painted by Dzubas was sold by Leslie Feeley Fine Arts, LLC (the gallery) (defendant) to John Doe (defendant) for $40,000. Hicks claimed that she painted the painting but had simply failed to take it when she was pushed out of the house by Dzubas’s family. Hicks sued the gallery for conversion and sued John Doe for replevin in federal district court based on diversity jurisdiction. The gallery was located in New York, and Hicks resided in Pennsylvania. The gallery filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). Specifically, the gallery asserted that Hicks could not establish diversity jurisdiction because there was not competent evidence that she could have painted a painting worth at least $75,000, the jurisdictional minimum for amount in controversy. In a 2005 bankruptcy filing, Hicks stated that she owned 28 paintings with unknown values.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Ramos, J.)

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