A collector of rare, vintage baseball memorabilia filed suit in a Manhattan court Monday, asking for over $1 million in damages and punitive damages over items purchased at auction.
Corey Shanus, a New York collector and attorney who specializes in 19th century baseball items, says he bought period pieces that turned to have been manufactured much later.
In the suit, first reported by the New York Daily News, Shanus says the items sold to him were trophy balls purported to have been from the 19th century but were actually made much later. Robert Edward Auctions president Rob Lifson, who was an officer at MastroNet at the time, is named in the suit.
The items, according to the News’ story, came from the collection of Peter Nash.
Lifson, now president of Robert Edward Auctions, has been pursuing Nash in court, saying the ex-Third Bass rapper didn’t pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars it loaned to him with valuable baseball artifacts used as collateral.
After learning of the suit Monday night, REA president Rob Lifson said it was “without merit”.
REA attorney Barry Kozyra claimed his client will file its own suit against Shanus, whose collection was featured in the first chapter of Stephen Wong’s book “Smithsonian Baseball”, published in 2005.
“Robert Edward Auctions, LLC and Robert Lifson deny the allegations of the Complaint filed by Corey Shanus,” Kozyra said in a statment. “The Complaint contains numerous misstatements of fact and inaccuracies as Mr. Shanus must know as well as false suppositions. The Complaint is frivolous as a matter of law and REA and Mr. Lifson will seek full redress through the courts for damages, attorney fees and costs from Mr. Shanus and anyone acting in concert with him or on his behalf.”
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[…] claimed about a year ago that the lawsuit was "without merit", but at least for now, it is going forward. The memorabilia in question was originally consigned […]