United States Ninth Circuit

In an action against a museum seeking the return of paintings believed to have been looted by Nazis, dismissal of the complaint is reversed and remanded where: 1) Cal. Civ. Proc. Code section 354.3, which extends the statute of limitations until 2010 for actions for the recovery of Holocaust-era art, infringes on the national government's exclusive foreign affairs powers; but 2) it was possible that plaintiff may be able to bring her action within the three-year statute of limitations set forth in Cal. Civ. Proc. Code section 338.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/08/2008
• Decided 08/19/2009
• Published 08/19/2009

Judges

• Before:  HARRY PREGERSON, D.W. NELSON and DAVID R. THOMPSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lawrence M. Kaye, New York, NY, for plaintiff-appellant Marei Von Saher., Frank Kaplan, Santa Monica, CA, for amicus curiae Bet Tzedek Legal Services, The Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Simon Wiesenthal Center and Commission for Art Recovery., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General of the State of California by Antonette Benita Cordero, Los Angeles, CA, for amicus curiae State of California.


• For Appellees:
  
• Fred Anthony Rowley, Jr., Los Angeles, CA, for defendants-appellees Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena and Norton Simon Art Foundation.