HERITAGE NUMISMATIC AUCTIONS, INC. V. STIEL CRAIG STODDART JUSTICE On Appeal from the 162nd Judicia

HERITAGE NUMISMATIC AUCTIONS, INC. V. STIEL

CRAIG STODDART JUSTICE

On Appeal from the 162nd Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. DC-15-09220

ORDER
We GRANT appellant's May 19, 2016 unopposed motion for extension of time to file brief and ORDER the brief be filed no later than May 31, 2016.

/s/ CRAIG STODDART


JUSTICE

Heritage dues Legacy Member after 10,000,000 in purchases in two years. Thank You my friends

 

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Could you provide a little bit of procedural history and some of the relevant facts of this case? And how does this belong in the Ancients Forum and not in the general section?

Although I'm not a Texas attorney nor do I normally do appeals, I've argued a case before the 3rd DCA in Florida, and also submitted a legal brief on a Non-Oral Argument case, which I won through a Per Curiam Affirmed decision, so I can read into what you posted and know what it is. All I see there is an extension of time to file initial appellate brief. Why is that relevant? Normally an Appellate court (at least in Florida) grants 2 extensions automatically to the deadline for filing briefs as a matter of course with the submission of a motion for extension of time.

 

OK, I'm confused.

 

I have no idea what this is about, can you elaborate?

 

I believe it has something to do with this:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ho...ment-intervinsion-in-coin-hobby.269184/page-2

 

See now you had given all that money and material to those folks and you got aggravated and lost all that time and money - if you would have given me 1/10th of what you gave them you would have no aggravation and a friend for life. Just saying.

 

Honestly, out of all the different law cases that I have been involved, I would NEVER air this out in public forums! Good lawyers would not encourage this. I am lost.

 

I can't say I disagree with the sentiment. However, since I'm not his lawyer he'll get no legal advise from me.

What i will say as a collector is that while I understand his frustration at perceived corruption at a major auction house, he deals with U.S. coins from what I've seen, so to spam the Ancient Coins Forum with this is disrespectful.

I am reporting this thread to a moderator. It doesn't belong here!

 

Confusing. I followed the link to the previous CT discussion, but it doesnt say much. Lots of people commenting with nothing explained about the complaint. How can anyone comment when there isnt anything explained? Like this thread (and I can see how it will apply to our ancient category), people are commenting but absolutely nothing really has bee said or explained. What is the complaint?

 

Unless the appeal brief was filed weeks ago, the case will have been discontinued for lack of prosecution.

This sort of irrelevant posting seems typical of the litigant (I did read the original thread)

It seems probable that the only people to benefit from this near farcical process will be the legal profession.

 

The original complaint seems to have been that Heritage mishandled sales of a large number of expensive coins, to the plaintiff's disadvantage.

 

From what little I've been able to gather by spending far more time than is prudent looking at the issue, the allegations involve Heritage telling OP that it was going to sell some of his coins at a private closed auction with no reserve, but not to worry because they would tell him what to bid on them (ie. shill bid) so he wouldn't get less for them than what was reasonable, then locking him out as the auction started so he couldn't bid, and his coins selling for 25% or so of what they were worth. He lost $2,000,000 in the process. Heritage allegedly also bid on some of these coins and got them at a fraction of the price (according to the OP).

Heritage also bought some coins for 1/3 price and told OP that when they sold them they would share 45% of the profits with him, and never did. He also won some coins on Heritage which they refused to turn over because Heritage felt that they were undervalued because they could grade higher if sent for regrading.

Again, these are just allegations from the OP. I have no idea if it's true, partially true, or not at all.

 

A fair summary

 

For some strange reason, CT wont let me quote messages today, so these are quoted from that thread mentioned above:

"They told me not to worry with reserves because they and I could bid to protect low sales figure."

This is common practice in the auction world. Its called a 'reserve'. The house can list a coin way low to attract bidders, but can bid it up to (and the buyer can as well in some instances) what the reserve price may be. I assume from his comments he says he could not bid and Heritage did not bid either up to his reserves. Matters little. Bottom line, he must have signed a contract somewhere outlining what he was willing to sell the coins for, and all the details would have been in there. If he is selling coins worth as much money as he says, he should have had an attorney check the contract.

 

You can call it "reserve" but I call that shill bidding. There is no other word for suckering in bidders with a low bid and getting them psychologically invested in the coin, only for the auction house to bid it up at the last minute and getting the genuine bidders to have to place higher bids than they normally would have placed to begin with.

They ban you for that kind of stuff on Ebay, so why is it ok for a "reputable" auction house. If you are going to have a reserve, have a proper reserve, or don't have one at all.

 

Honestly, I agree. Start the auction at what the minimum price the consignor is willing accept. Nothing hidden, complete transparency. But that is not the auction world. There is a lot of psychology behind why and how auctions work. The truth is that we can start an auction at $100, and maybe nobody bids. But give it an estimate of $100 with a start of $60, well, it is likely to sell for several hundred. I am no lawyer (no offense or course), but these practices benefit the consignor and the auction house (not always the buyer). But that is one of those examples where we, as buyers, need to be diligent and not bid more than we are willing to pay. Personally, I care not one whit about estimates, reserves, shills, etc. I will only bid my price. I care not about anything else. If I look at a lot and decide, "I will pay $500", I wont go over that. Its completely impersonal. I simply never get caught up in any hype, nor do I care if there is a reserve. I bid what I do, and if it works, fine. If it doesnt, fine as well.

 

Well, I'm hardly a lawyer but if he's received an extension of time to file appeal, it infers he's already lost once....

This is the gift which keeps on giving.

 

I don't know about Texas, but here in Florida there is such a thing as "bad investment defense." Meaning that absent a showing of fraud, just because you lost money doesn't mean you are entitled to compensation. If the other party followed the contract, there was no fraud or misrepresentation, and you took a risk and lost money in your investment, that is not an actionable cause and you do not have a right to recover damages.

I'm sure the Florida Bar would appreciate it if I stated the following disclaimer right about now. Please bear with me, as I do not fancy getting a call from the Florida Bar over this:

I am not licensed in Texas, I do not have the facts of this case, and any opinion I give here in this thread is a personal opinion and should NOT be construed as legal advise, NOR does it constitute a promise of retention of services or actual retention of services. Hiring an attorney is a personal responsibility that should not be taken lightly and you have the right to seek advise from multiple attorneys and carefully weighting all options before retaining counsel licensed to practice law in Texas.

 

I tried to look up the case. Best I could do is this link: http://courtfiles.org/Heritage-Numi...ge-Auctions-v-Hugh-Stiel-05-16-00299-CV/46948

I'm not a lawyer, but from reading the Notice of Appeal 3/11/2016, it would appear that Heritage tried to have the case heard by an arbitrator but that was denied, and it is that denial that Heritage is appealing. So, the real case has not yet been adjudicated.

Would appreciate any lawyers' comments.

Cal