Elam v. Early
| Docket Number | 1:23-cv-229 (MSN/WEF) |
| Decision Date | 31 October 2023 |
| Parties | WILLIAM NILE ELAM, III, Plaintiff, v. STEPHEN TIMOTHY EARLY, et al. Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
Stephen T. Early Sr., the country's longest-serving Press Secretary, worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945. In 1943, Norman Rockwell, an iconic American artist most famous for the cover illustrations he created for The Saturday Evening Post, spent a week at the White House observing and capturing scenes outside the Oval Office. Rockwell ultimately drew four illustrations depicting a collection of individuals-members of Congress, a beauty pageant winner, military officers-waiting for the opportunity to meet with President Roosevelt. Rockwell gave these illustrations, collectively known as and titled “So You Want to See the President?” (the “Illustrations”), to Stephen T. Early Sr. as a gift in October 1943, and they were published in The Saturday Evening Post on November 13, 1943.
Now almost exactly eighty years later, the descendants of Stephen T. Early Sr. ask this Court to determine ownership of these Illustrations. Plaintiff William Nile Elam, a grandson of Stephen T. Early Sr., seeks a judgment declaring him the sole owner of the Illustrations. Defendants Michael S. Early and Stephen T. Early, also grandsons of Stephen T. Early Sr. and Plaintiff's first cousins, as well as Defendant Suzanne Early, daughter-in-law to Stephen T. Early Sr. and Plaintiff's aunt by marriage, each claim partial ownership of the Illustrations.
F Scott Fitzgerald once opined, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited, The Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 21, 1931. The (property) rules here, however, lead to a clear outcome Plaintiff has satisfied his burden to establish sole ownership of the Illustrations. Accordingly, the Court will grant Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and deny Defendants' motion for summary judgment.
A discussion of this case requires an understanding of the Early family tree. Stephen T. Early Sr. (“Grandfather Early”) married Helen Wrenn Early (“Grandmother Early”), with whom he had three children (the “Early children”). [Dkt. No. 40 (Joint Statement of Facts) (“JSOF”) ¶ 3].[2] All three Early children are now deceased.
On October 16, 1943, Norman Rockwell gifted the original Illustrations to Grandfather Early, who took them to the home he shared with Grandmother Early on Morningside Drive in Washington, D.C. (“Morningside Drive Residence”) [Dkt. No. 61 (Defendants' Statement of Facts) (“DSOF”) ¶ 5]. The framed Illustrations, which are each approximately four feet by three feet in size, are reproduced below.[3][Dkt. No. 64 (Plaintiff's Statement of Facts) (“PSOF”) ¶ 11].
(Image Omitted)
The Court begins with a recitation of the facts surrounding the estate distributions of the relevant members of the Early family. Grandfather Early died intestate in 1951. JSOF ¶ 2. He was survived by his wife and the three Early children: Stephen T. Early Jr., Helen Early Elam, and Thomas A. Early. Id. ¶ 3. The official accounting of Grandfather Early's assets, titled Appraisement and First and Final Account, which was filed with the Court in the District of Columbia, did not include the Illustrations. PSOF ¶ 3; see also PEX[4] 2, 3. Grandmother Early stated under oath that: (1) the appraisement, which included assets worth as little as $1.50, was “a true and perfect Inventory of the Goods, Chattels, and Personal Estate of [Grandfather Early]” at the time of its making on January 24, 1952, (2) any assets that later came into her “hands or possession” would be included in a subsequent “additional inventory,” and (3) she knew of “no concealment of any part of [Grandfather Early's] estate by any person whatsoever ....” PEX 2 at 2, 5; PEX 5. It is undisputed that, at the time of and immediately following Grandfather Early's death, the Illustrations were located in Grandmother Early's Morningside Drive Residence. PSOF ¶ 1; DSOF ¶ 5.
Grandmother Early died on July 18, 1978. JSOF ¶ 4. She died with a will and codicil, neither of which referenced the Illustrations. PEX 7, 8. The accounting of the assets of Grandmother Early's estate-which was signed by the co-executors, Grandmother Early's eldest son, Stephen T. Early Jr., and her lawyer-did not list the Illustrations or any partial interest in them. PSOF ¶¶ 5, 6; PEX 6. To wind up the administration of Grandmother Early's estate, all three Early children executed acknowledgments stating that each had received a one-third share in “personal effects and household furnishings” in “full settlement of [their] share of the estate of” Grandmother Early. PSOF ¶ 7. Neither the Illustrations nor any partial interest in them are included. Id. Grandmother Early's will did make reference to unspecified “objects of art,” to be left in equal shares to her three children. Id. ¶ 8. However, the inventory of her estate valued her household furniture and personal effects (which would include unspecified “objects of art”) at $3,000, whereas an appraisal from 1979 valued the Illustrations at $80,000. Id.
As noted above, all three Early children are now deceased: Stephen T. Early Jr. died on June 27, 2009; Helen Early Elam died on November 9, 2009; and Thomas A. Early died on May 23, 2020. JSOF ¶¶ 6, 9, 11. Of the three children, only Helen Early Elam's will referenced the Illustrations. Neither Stephen T. Early Jr.'s will nor the inventory of his assets referenced an interest in the Illustrations. PSOF ¶ 9. Likewise, neither Thomas A. Early's inventory of assets upon his death nor his divorce proceedings identified any interest in the Illustrations. Id. ¶ 10.
Although Plaintiff alleges that his mother gifted him the Illustrations in 1999, Helen Early Elam's will, made in 1990, left the Illustrations to Plaintiff and his sister, Dru Anne Elam, in equal shares. Id. ¶ 18. Plaintiff and his sister-who is not a party in this action-entered into a contract in 2010 in which she acknowledged that their mother had given Plaintiff the Illustrations before her death, disclaimed any ownership right to the Illustrations, and transferred whatever rights she had to Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 20.[5]
On December 5, 2022, Plaintiff obtained a default judgment against Thomas A. Early II ) in an action brought by Plaintiff against Stephen T. Early and Thomas A. Early II in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County, Virginia.[6]JSOF ¶¶ 13, 14. As a result of that default, Thomas A. Early II was adjudged to have no rightful claim to the Illustrations. Id. ¶ 14.
Having examined the record evidence regarding the Early family's estate distributions, the Court next endeavors to track the location and movement of the Illustrations over the past eighty years. The parties agree that from 1943 until 1951, the Illustrations were located at the Morningside Drive Residence of Grandfather and Grandmother Early. PSOF ¶ 1; DSOF ¶ 5. In 1949, Grandfather Early's daughter, Helen Early Elam (Plaintiff's mother), graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to St. Louis. DSOF ¶ 13. Plaintiff asserts, and Defendants contest, that the Illustrations were gifted to Helen Early Elam in 1949 by her father. Regardless of whether such a gift was made, the parties agree that Helen Early Elam was not in physical possession of the Illustrations in 1949 (and for at least the next decade). PSOF ¶ 11; DSOF ¶¶ 15, 19.
On August 11, 1951, Grandfather Early died intestate. JSOF ¶ 2. The location of the Illustrations from Grandfather Early's death in 1951 until 1960 is also not in dispute: they remained in the Morningside Drive Residence until 1956, when Grandmother Early moved to a residence on Tulane Drive in Alexandria, Virginia (“Tulane Drive Residence”). Id. ¶ 18. The Illustrations were located in the Tulane Drive Residence from 1956 until at least 1960. Here, the parties' accounts of the Illustrations' whereabouts diverge.[7]
Plaintiff alleges that his mother first took physical possession of the Illustrations in 1960, the year that she and her husband moved into a house-on Marlan Drive in Alexandria, Virginia (“Marlan Drive Residence”)-that was finally large enough to display the Illustrations. PSOF ¶ 11. In a May 1990 letter to the Rockwell Museum, Helen Early Elam stated: “In 1960, I was given a set of original art works done by Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post Magazine . . . entitled ‘So You Want to See the President.'” DSOF ¶ 21; DEX A at 34-35. Plaintiff alleges that the Illustrations were located at his mother's Marlan Drive Residence from 1960 until 1969, and remained with her from 1969-when she moved into Grandmother Early's then-residence on Hoover Lane (“Hoover Lane Residence”)-until 1978. PSOF ¶¶ 12-13. Plaintiff thus maintains that Helen Early Elam had physical possession of the Illustrations continuously from 1960 until 1978. Id.
Defendants dispute that Helen Early Elam took possession of the Illustrations in 1960; however, they never expressly state where the Illustrations were housed from 1960 to 1969. Defendants instead allege that in 1969, Helen Early Elam took possession of the Illustrations “only for a short period of time,” after [Dkt. No....
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