Sale of rare Titanic ticket goes to court

It took the mammoth ocean liner Titanic less than three hours to slip into the ocean after striking an iceberg on that fateful April morning in 1912. It's taken Tacoma antique dealer Alan Gorsuch considerably longer to work his way out of a legal wrangle involving a bit of Titanic memorabilia.

A Pierce County Superior Court jury this morning will resume deliberations in a fraud trial over the profit Gorsuch made in the sale of a rare Titanic boarding pass.

Vern Westby of Parkland, Pierce County, claims he was defrauded by Gorsuch when he sold the boarding pass to the antique dealer for $1,000 in 1998.

Gorsuch turned around and sold the boarding pass at auction for $100,000.

Westby cried foul shortly after the auction, claiming Gorsuch deceived him over the value of the boarding pass. He sued the antique dealer for fraud, and the civil trial opened last week in Tacoma.

The case went to the jury late Friday afternoon.

Westby had inherited the ticket from his late wife, Betty. She had been given the ticket by her parents, who were the uncle and aunt of Titanic survivor Anna Sofia Sjoblom.

During the trial, Gorsuch's attorney, Martin Duenhoelter of Tacoma, said the lawsuit resulted from Westby's regret over selling the ticket for a low price and not his client's dishonesty.

He said Gorsuch had merely benefited from a combination of luck and clever marketing.

Gorsuch freely admits he was no authority on Titanic memorabilia when Westby

walked into his shop with the boarding pass. He said it was Westby who set the $1,000 price.

After the purchase, Gorsuch said he and his wife, Cheryl, spent dozens of hours researching the authenticity of the document.

The ticket was displayed at Sanford & Son for several weeks but didn't generate much interest. It wasn't until Gorsuch advertised the ticket in antiques publications and featured it in an auction catalog that interest grew, Duenhoelter said during the trial.

Gorsuch calls the lawsuit frivolous.

"It's a question of regret and sour grapes," he said in an interview last week.

Michael Schwartz, Westby's attorney, claims Gorsuch deliberately deceived his client about the boarding pass's value, initially telling him it was worthless. Gorsuch later told Westby the ticket wouldn't sell for $500, Schwartz maintains.

Gorsuch denies ever offering an opinion on the potential value of the boarding pass.

"I do not make offers, so this very thing could not have happened," he said.

Schwartz claimed during the trial that Gorsuch took advantage of Westby, who was in debt and anxious for quick money. He said Gorsuch never offered to auction the ticket for Westby nor sell it on consignment.

Whatever the verdict, Gorsuch said the resulting "toxic" publicity from the lawsuit has damaged his reputation.

"My credibility has been called into question," Gorsuch said yesterday as he awaited word on a verdict.