Précis
Menzel v. List, one of the first Holocaust
replevin
A legal action in which an original owner seeks to recover possession of property wrongfully taken or retained by another party.
replevin cases, is significant for the application of New York’s
Demand and Refusal Rule
A common law rule followed by New York courts providing that, in determining when a statute of limitations begins to run, the cause of action to recover stolen property from a good faith purchaser or other possessor does not accrue until the possessor refuses to return the object upon the demand of the owner.
Demand and Refusal Rule to a claim for return of an artwork stolen more than twenty years earlier. After Menzel sued List, a
good faith purchaser
One who buys something for value without notice of another's claim to the property and without actual or constructive notice of any defects in or infirmities, claims, or equities against the seller's title; one who has in good faith paid valuable consideration for property without notice of prior adverse claims (Black’s Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2004)).
good faith purchaser and new owner of the work, List counterclaimed against Perls Gallereries, from which the work was bought. The Court found that . . . .
