JACKSON, Miss (AP) — A federal appeals court is allowing a Mississippi television anchorman to keep documents and other material tied to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
King's estate sued WLBT-TV anchorman Howard Ballou in September 2011 in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Miss. The estate wanted to take possession of the material.
The lawsuit said Ballou's mother, Maude Ballou, worked as King's secretary from 1955 to 1960 and kept the items.
Maude Ballou said King gave them to her.
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee dismissed the estate's lawsuit on March 23, 2012, saying there's nothing to contradict Maude Ballou's testimony that King gave her the material.
A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld that decision Friday.
