Firm News

On August 17, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted a summary judgment win on behalf of our client Mystic Seaport Museum (the “museum”) in Sparkman & Stephens Holdings, LLC v. Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., Case No. 1:21-cv-00029.

This groundbreaking victory allows the museum – the largest maritime museum in the United States, and one of the most well-regarded maritime museums in the world – to retain an important collection of thousands of historic, hand-drawn boat-design drawings that were donated to the museum in 1989 and 2011 by the world-famous naval architectural firm Sparkman & Stephens (“S&S”). These drawings were characterized by one witness as the maritime equivalent of “the actual sheets of paper on which Beethoven wrote his music.”

The litigation between S&S and the museum began in January 2021 when S&S’s new owner decided that he would try to “rescind” his predecessors’ donation by alleging the museum had breached the original donation agreement and infringed S&S’s copyrights. Central to the dispute was whether the donation agreement, which permitted the museum to sell copies of the original drawings for purposes other than “boatbuilding,” prohibited the museum from selling drawings for purposes of restoring original S&S boats. Wiggin and Dana obtained favorable testimony from three witnesses who were directly involved in drafting, negotiating, and executing the agreement in 1989. U.S. District Judge Mary S. McElroy found that this testimony, plus the 30-year course of dealings between S&S and the museum, established that the parties had always intended for the museum to sell copies of S&S plans for restoration. In addition, the judge found rescission of the agreement would be inappropriate as a matter of law due to the inability to return to the status quo as it existed in 1989.

The litigation raised fundamental issues affecting all museums, including the importance of honoring donor intent – an ethical principle that generally requires museums to follow the intentions of those who donate items to museum collections – and preserving public access to cultural resources.

Peter Armstrong, President of Mystic Seaport Museum, said, “As we have said from the outset of the case, Mystic Seaport Museum takes very seriously the promises it makes to its donors, and we are gratified that the court found we have kept the agreement we made with our donor more than three decades ago.”

Mystic Seaport Museum is represented by Partners Joseph M. Casino, Nathan E. Denning, and Francis J. Duffin, along with Associates Sean W. Vallancourt, Evan Bianchi, and Hannah J. Blonshteyn.

The Wiggin and Dana team received a runner-up spot in Am Law Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” column for their work on the case.  

A copy of decision, the winning brief, and links to recent Law360 and Law.com articles regarding the case are linked below.

• To read the decision, click here.
• To read the brief, click here.
• To read the Law360 article, “Judge Torpedoes Yacht Co.’s Claims Against Mystic Museum,” click here.
• To read the Law.com, Am Law Litigation Daily article, “How a Wiggin and Dana Team Landed on An Attention-Catching Storytelling Opening in a Long, Winning SJ Motion,” click here.
• To read the Law.com, Am Law Litigation Daily article “Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs,” click here.
• To read the New York Law Journal article, “How a Wiggin and Dana Team Landed on An Attention-Catching Storytelling Opening in a Long, Winning SJ Motion,” click here.