Cassirer v. Thyssen-bornemisza Collection Foundation
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 21, 2022 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- April 21, 2022
- Term
- October Term 2021
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Private Action
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2021 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus CASSIRER ET AL. v. THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA COLLECTION FOUNDATION CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT No. 20–1566. Argued January 18, 2022—Decided April 21, 2022 The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA), 28 U. S. C. §1602 et seq., governs whether a foreign state or instrumentality is amenable to suit in an American court. The question in this case is what choice- of-law rule a court should use to determine the applicable substantive law in an FSIA suit raising non-federal claims. That issue arises in a dispute concerning the ownership of an Impressionist painting: Ca- mille Pissarro’s Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain. Lilly Cassirer inherited the painting, which a family member had pur- chased from Pissarro’s agent in 1900. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, Lilly surrendered Rue Saint-Honoré to them to obtain an exit visa. Lilly and her grandson, Claude,…
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