Jury says Titanic ticket seller should get more

A Parkland man who sold a rare Titanic boarding pass for $1,000 only to see it resold at auction for 100 times that should get a bigger piece of the profit, a Pierce County jury has ruled.

The six-member jury ruled yesterday that Vern Westby was entitled to $18,700 from the Tacoma antique dealer who bought the boarding pass from him in 1998. Westby had inherited the boarding pass from his late wife, who was related to Titanic survivor Anna Sophia Sjoblom.

Antique dealer Alan Gorsuch, benefiting from the interest in the ill-fated ocean liner after the hugely successful 1997 movie "Titanic," auctioned off the boarding pass for $100,000 in April 1999.

The jury, which had been deliberating since Friday afternoon, was asked to decide whether Gorsuch was guilty of negligent misrepresentation or fraudulent misrepresentation. But there was no indication yesterday why the jury found in Westby's favor, said his attorney, Erik Bjornson.

Former Pierce County Superior Court Judge Donald Thompson, a substitute judge in the case, will rule on six other causes of action over the next few weeks, Bjornson said.

Thompson could determine that Westby is entitled to more damages and could levy punitive damages, said Gorsuch's attorney, Martin Duenhoelter.

Bjornson said the 72-year-old Westby was pleased the jury believed his account of what took place around the sale of the boarding pass.

Antique dealer feels violated

Westby had sued Gorsuch, claiming the antique dealer had misled him about the ticket's potential worth to keep the price low. But Gorsuch said he only became aware of the boarding pass's value after doing extensive research after the purchase.

Gorsuch said yesterday he felt violated by the jury's verdict, which he attributed to their sympathy for the elderly Westby.

"Legally and morally, I did nothing wrong," said Gorsuch, who owns Sanford & Son Antiques in Tacoma.

He plans to appeal yesterday's verdict.