A blue and white checked gingham dress, worn by Judy Garland within the “Wizard of Oz,” hangs on show, Monday, April 25, 2022, at Bonhams in New York.
Katie Vasquez | AP
This “Wizard of Oz” dress could be off to see the auction home very quickly.
A federal judge in New York on Monday dismissed a lawsuit difficult the ownership of a dress worn by Judy Garland when she performed Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” which for greater than a 12 months had held up a deliberate auction of the storied garment by The Catholic University of America.
Judge Paul Gardephe gave the plaintiff, Barbara Hartke, 10 days to current an argument as to why he mustn’t raise an injunction that has blocked the auction since mid-2022.
In his ruling, Gardephe wrote that Barbara Hartke had failed to determine that she had authorized standing to say an ownership proper within the “Oz” dress, which beforehand was owned by the Wisconsin girl’s uncle, the late Rev. Gilbert Hartke, a longtime professor at Catholic University. The college, situated in Washington, D.C., says it’s the proprietor of the dress.
Anthony Scordo III, Barbara Hartke’s lawyer, instructed CNBC on Monday that he hopes to quickly have her appointed as an executor of her uncle’s property, which could permit her to resume her authorized declare to the dress’s ownership.
“We’re not out of the field but,” mentioned Scordo.
He additionally plans to argue to the judge that it will be “untimely to raise the injunction” blocking the auction whereas Barbara nonetheless may need grounds to contest the ownership.
In an announcement, Catholic University mentioned that it “may be very inspired and happy that the movement to dismiss was granted and appears ahead to reaching finality on this case within the coming weeks.”
Gilbert Hartke, who had served as chairman of the college’s drama division, obtained the blue and white dress from the Oscar-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge, who was a good friend of Garland’s. The dress is believed to be one of six worn by Garland within the 1939 movie. Garland died in 1969; McCambridge in 2004.
After Father Hartke died in 1986, the dress was lacking for a long time, however then was present in 2021 in a trash bag above school mail slots throughout a renovation of the Hartke Theater on the college.
Catholic University contracted with the Bonhams auction home in March 2022 to promote the dress in New York. The dress was anticipated to fetch between $800,000 to $1.2 million at auction.
But that sale was placed on maintain when Barbara Hartke sued each the college and Bonhams in Manhattan federal courtroom final 12 months.
Gardephe’s ruling Monday dismissing her declare famous that Father Hartke had taken a vow of poverty when he turned a priest of the Dominican order in 1933. In that vow, Hartke renounced his ownership of “temporal items,” and agreed to show over his wage to the College of the Immaculate Conception.
The judge wrote that Barbara Hartke’s lawsuit, which asserts that the dress belongs to her uncle’s property, did not plead info demonstrating that she is a “actual half of curiosity.”
The ruling additionally notes that there’s nothing within the courtroom file to point out that she has been appointed a private consultant of her uncle’s property regardless of her having petitioned the D.C. Probate Court for that position.
As a end result, “she lacks standing to carry this motion,” Gardephe wrote.
The judge left the door open for Barbara Hartke to amend her lawsuit to make one other argument for authorized standing. But Gardephe famous that “it seems uncertain” that such a declare would succeed.
Barbara Hartke’s lawyer Scordo instructed CNBC that obtained the case recordsdata for her uncle’s property from Probate Court solely in October, lengthy after they have been requested, and that there was no ruling but on her utility to be appointed private consultant for the property.