Judge Tosses Kevorkian Estate's Mich. Art Suit
PONTIAC (WWJ/AP) - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed in suburban Detroit by the estate of Dr. Jack Kevorkian against a Massachusetts museum that refused to return 17 of his paintings.
The Detroit News and The Oakland Press of Pontiac report the dispute likely will be heard in federal court in Massachusetts following Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson's decision Wednesday.
Anderson said the issue should be decided in Massachusetts because the museum first sued there last year.
That suit was filed ahead of a New York auction which was to feature Kevorkian's original oil paintings, including one done in his own blood, a "suicide machine," Kevorkian's trademark sweaters, painting tools and personal letters.
The Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Mass., claims Kevorkian donated the art in 1999. But the estate of the assisted-suicide advocate says he loaned it to the museum for an exhibit and subsequent storage.
Kevorkian died in June at age 83.
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