A Fulton County Superior Court judge has granted a 30-day stay in the King family lawsuit so that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s children can work out a settlement regarding ownership and the potential sale of King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and his traveling Bible.
On Wednesday Judge Robert McBurney signed an order granting the stay in the case so that Bernice King can negotiate a deal with her brothers, Dexter King and Martin Luther King III.
“We are grateful to Judge McBurney for granting the stay,” Bernice King said. “I continue to maintain that these artifacts are too sacred to sell under any circumstances. Nonetheless, whatever the outcome of the settlement, I am committed to work tirelessly to preserve the historic role these artifacts played in the civil rights movement, and our nation’s history, by keeping them accessible to the public.”
In essence, Bernice King was fighting against an attempt by her brothers to sell the items on behalf of the King Estate.
On Thursday, King said she and her brothers made a request to McBurney on Monday to give them time to settle this out of court.
The trial was supposed to start on Feb. 16. McBurney wrote that a hearing will be held March 25 if a settlement hasn’t been reached.
The sibling battle over possession of the Nobel Prize and the Bible, which was used and signed by President Obama during his second inauguration, has been perhaps the most contentious of their many legal battles.
Just last week, the estate dismissed a separate 2013 lawsuit against Bernice King over the possession of items that they say she was carelessly handling at the King Center, which she runs.
The brothers filed that lawsuit “after the results of an internal audit of the King Center showed that hundreds of items that once belonged to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — now property of the King estate — were being housed in unsafe, unsecure conditions, and in jeopardy of fire and water damage.”
The suit also described the relationship between the estate and the King Center as “strained, resulting in a total breakdown in communication and transparency.”
In dismissing that case, Dexter King and King III cracked open the door for future talks and settlements, particularly with the Nobel Prize and the Bible.
Initially, the brothers cited a 1995 agreement that gave the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. ownership of all their father’s property, including the Bible and peace prize. Last year, the brothers voted 2-1 in favor of selling the two items. Bernice King, the youngest of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr.’s three surviving children, voted against the sale and took her brothers to court.
Calls to the attorneys of the King Estate were not immediately returned Thursday.
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