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Alcoholics Anonymous Sues to Get Original '12 Step' Manuscript Back

By Shaye Weaver | May 23, 2017 3:27pm
 The original working manuscript of Alcoholic Anonymous'
The original working manuscript of Alcoholic Anonymous' "12 Step" program is the subject of a lawsuit filed by AA to get it back into its possession.
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Profilesinhistory.com

NEW YORK CITY — Alcoholics Anonymous is suing to get back an original working manuscript of its "12 Step" program that went on display at a Park Avenue gallery before heading to auction next month.

Alcoholics Anonymous World Services filed the lawsuit in State Supreme Court on May 18 against Alabama resident Ken Roberts, who owns the manuscript; Questroyal Fine Art on Park Avenue, which put it on display last week; and the Profiles in History auction house in the Los Angeles area, which will auction it off on June 8.

The organization is demanding that the manuscript be returned to AA, its rightful owner, according to the suit.

"The defendants... are wrongly detaining the manuscript for their own pecuniary gain," the suit states.

The manuscript was published in 1939 by AA's co-founder William Griffith Wilson and it includes his and other authors' handwritten edits, changes and corrections inside, according to AA attorneys Sandra Hauser, Justin Kattan and Ilya Schwartzburg.

"The manuscript is an original, historical document of unique importance to A.A.W.S and undeniably is a critical piece of its history," they wrote in the filing.

The manuscript was gifted to a man named Barry Leach and was meant to be returned to AA when he died in 1985 as per his wishes, the suit says.

But due to "either extreme negligence or potentially wrongful actions by individuals outside of A.A.W.S at or around the time" of Leach's death, Alcoholics Anonymous did not get the manuscript and there was no information about what happened to it, the suit continues.

In June 2004, a person identified as Joseph B. sold the manuscript to Sotheby's at auction to a William Shenk for $1.5 million. Then, in June 2007, Roberts purchased the manuscript at another Sotheby's auction for $850,000 — all unbeknownst to AA, the attorneys said.

A few months later in September, the organization discovered Leach's letter about returning the manuscript to AA and realized that it was the rightful owner of the document.

Roberts is set to sell the manuscript on June 8 at the Calabasas, California-based auction house, which specialized in original historical autographs, letters, documents, vintage signed photos and manuscripts.

Leading up to the auction, Roberts showed the manuscript inside QuestRoyal Fine Art at 903 Park Ave. between May 18 and 20.

Attorney information for Roberts wasn't immediately available.

QuestRoyal Fine Art and Profiles in History did not immediately return requests for comment.