Posted By:
CoreyRShanus"To address question 1. This statement has no connection with the liability of the auction house, imo. It's more a testament to the fact that mistakes have been made....not by the auction houses but by the authenticator(s). Regardless of this statment I still say if they aren't qualified then they shouldn't be in business and ARE SOLELY liable for their actions."
It has everything to do with the liability of the auction house, which is predicated on them reasonably being expected to know grading companies were not qualified in the early years, thus creating a current duty to either disclose, inspect or resubmit.
"To address question 2. Almost every auction house has a disclaimer that you agree to abide by when signing up to bid. If you don't agree with it then you don't bid. If you sign then you are waiving your right for liability where the venue is concerned. Maybe I am off base here but that would be my thought process."
Respectfully, I do think you're off base here. By that reasoning, Coaches Corner has no liability for all the bogus autographs they've sold. I have a big problem with that one. Disclaimers are all well and good but IMO the law still would require an auction house to either (1) disclose info it had that it reasonably should be expected to know its good faith bidders do not have, which info is material to the decision whether and how high to bid, or (2) take reasonable actions to protect its good faith bidders, in the absence of which those bidders would be incurring risks they reasonably did not expect to incur.