Mystery of Chinese-style jade vases left to jury

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court is going to leave it up to a Las Vegas jury to unravel the mystery of two pink Chinese-style jade vases that may or not be worth $2 million.

The questions surrounding the case include who has the vases, whether they are really valuable and if this might be a big scam.

The court last Friday set aside a pre-trial judgment in favor of Loomis Armored Car Co., in Las Vegas, which was sued by Gordon Niemann, who has also alleged that other defendants stole the vases from him.

In 1995 Niemann, who lived in Las Vegas before his death, agreed to sell a pair of vases -- he said were made of pink jade -- for $2 million to Barson Joint Venture Partnership, whose partners include Ellis Morris, Edward Davis and Tyler McCloud, all of Las Vegas, and Barbara Fencl of California.

In court depositions, Niemann said he acquired the vases in the 1960s from an Indian princess named Alice, who gave them to him as a token of her love. He never had the items appraised, but he said they were worth between $2 million and $10 million.

Before the sale was completed, Niemann and his representative, Albert Comstock, said experts employed by Barson in New York inspected the vases. Then Barson agreed to pay $2 million and gave Niemann a $100,000 down payment.

An agreement was reached to put the vases in safekeeping until the remaining $1.9 million was paid within 30 days. The vases were given to Loomis for storage. An agreement was signed by representatives of Barson and Niemann that the items were not to be released by Loomis until there were four people present -- three from Barson and one from Niemann.

But several days later, Loomis told the parties it would not store the goods until a formal contract was signed with the company. Loomis returned the sealed container with the vases to three representatives of Barson -- Davis, Morris and Fencl. Niemann's representative, Comstock, was not present.

Niemann filed suit against Loomis and Barson. He sued Loomis for breach of contract and claimed representatives of Barson stole the vases.

But Barson said it had an appraiser in California look at the vases and found them to be alabaster, not pink jade, and worth only a few thousand dollars.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle issued a summary judgment in favor of Loomis, dismissing the company from the suit. But the Supreme Court reinstated Loomis as a defendant.

Justices Miriam Shearing and Nancy Becker said, "In light of the extraordinary nature of the circumstances in this matter, most notably the unfortunate death of Niemann and the alleged disappearance of the statues, we recognize that this may be a marginal case.

"However, given the testimony by a Loomis employee that he knew he should have contacted Niemann or Comstock before releasing the box, we cannot conclude that no reasonable jury would resolve the genuine issues of material fact in Niemann's favor," the court said.

Before he died, Niemann gave a deposition in which he put a value on the vases and attested to their authenticity. The court said Niemann was not an expert who could determine the vases were pink jade. But it said his testimony about the value could be allowed into testimony at the trial.

Loomis contended it was never part of the agreement that four people had to be present when the sealed package containing vases were released. Loomis said no one from the company ever signed that agreement. Comstock says Loomis agreed to incorporate the nonrelease agreement into its storage arrangement.

Justice Bill Maupin wrote a concurring opinion, agreeing Loomis should be reinstated as a defendant. But he disagreed with the majority in allowing Niemann's testimony about the value to be placed in evidence. He suggested that Hardcastle have the authority to refuse to allow any part of Niemann's deposition into evidence.