An 82-year-old Holocaust survivor and his family are suing the German government over an extensive art collection, including paintings by El Greco and Peter Paul Rubens, seized by the Nazis and sold at auction during World War II.

The lawsuit is unusual because it is seeking damages for lost art rather than the return of items that once belonged to Holocaust victims, lawyers said. The suit estimates the 400 or more works would be worth "tens of millions" of dollars today.

Retired economics professor Fred Westfield said he was celebrating this 12th birthday when he last saw his uncle, Walter Westfeld, a renowned art collector. Two days later came Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, on Nov. 9, 1938, when Nazis looted and burned Jewish synagogues and businesses across Germany and Austria.

The young Westfield fled Germany shortly thereafter as part of a British refugee program in response to Kristallnacht that brought about 10,000 Jewish children to England. He later moved to the United States with his parents, when the family anglicized their name by adding an "i".

Walter Westfeld, though, was arrested a few days after Kristallnacht on currency violation charges for trying to move his art work to the United States and the Nazis auctioned hundreds of his painting and tapestries to pay his fine, the lawsuit says.

Among the items were an El Greco that Adolf Hitler wanted for his personal collection, paintings by Dutch masters Frans Hals and Peter Paul Rubens and works by French impressionist Camille Pissarro.

The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected Republican legislators' demand towithhold a legislative report on whether Gov. Sarah Palin improperlyfired the state's public safety commissioner in a family vendetta. Thecourt's order clears the way for a 14-member legislative panel to votetoday on whether to release some or all of the 263-page report, andperhaps some of the hundreds of pages of supporting documents.

   Theinquiry was approved by a bipartisan vote in the Legislature andendorsed by Gov. Palin before Sen. McCain chose her as his runningmate.
    An outside investigator, Steven Branchflower, was hiredto determine whether the governor fired Public Safety CommissionerWalter Monegan because he refused to fire a state trooper who haddivorced Palin's sister.

   Branchflower also prepared a secondreport, roughly twice as long as the first one, that is expected toremain confidential because it contains exhibits with personnelinformation, the Anchorage Daily News reported today.
    Since McCain tabbed Palin as his running mate, the report and the timing of its release have become contentious.

   TheRepublican legislators whose Superior Court claim the state SupremeCourt rejected asserted that Palin could be irremediably harmed if thereport is released, but no one would be hurt if it is withheld.
    TheNew York Times reported today that Palin, her staff members and herhusband, Todd, contacted Monegan's office three dozen times to discussthe governor's ex-brother in law, Michael Wooten.

   Also today, aSuperior Court hearing is scheduled on a lawsuit aimed at forcing Gov.Palin to release emails on her private accounts that involve statebusiness. Former state employee Andree McLeod sued in AnchorageSuperior Court last week, demanding that Palin's emails that deal withstate business be made part of the state's public records.
    On Thursday, the McCain-Palin campaign released its own report, clearing Palin.
    If the legislators vote to release the report today, Courthouse News will post a link as soon as it becomes available.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has asked the Washington Supreme Court to determine whether the sister of a man whose bodily tissues were harvested for medical research without consent may sue for damages. In an order issued Tuesday, a Ninth Circuit panel found that plaintiff Robinette Amaker had raised dispositive issues of unsettled state law, certifying to the Washington court the questions of whether Amaker, as the decedent's sister, has standing to sue for tortious interference with a corpse and whether the state's now-repealed version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act created a private right of action. The court wrote:

This case presents an opportunity for the state supreme court to identify which claims may be brought in cases arising out of non-consensual organ donation. Likewise, the court may wish to consider the interplay between the Anatomical Gift Act and claims for tortious interference with a corpse...Amaker argues there is tension between the two holdings: she was legally permitted to donate organs, but she did not have the legal right to dispose of the body. The Washington court may wish to remedy this tension, or it may conclude that the policy rationales behind the common law claim and the compel this outcome.

When the man died, the King County Medical Examiner's Office could not reach his next of kin, and so sent tissue from his brain, liver and spleen to the Stanley Medical Research Institute. The medical examiner's office has faced several lawsuits over its defunct tissue-harvesting program, which raised nearly $1.5 million over 10 years.

In 2005, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels refused to stay the execution of Gregory Scott Johnson, a convicted murderer who hoped to give both a kidney and his liver to his sister, who suffered from hepatitis. The governor said he would have been amenable to a short delay if Johnson's donation offered "a clear, demonstrated medical advantage to his sister."