Lyle Stuart papers, 1926-2010, bulk 1949-2003

Series III: Lawsuits, 1954-2003

Lyle Stuart was a frequent party to lawsuits throughout his career. An early notable case was a libel suit brought by Stuart against columnist Walter Winchell: after publishing a muckraking exposé of Winchell, the columnist alluded to Stuart's guilty plea for attempted blackmail in the early 1940s. Stuart, whose sentence was suspended, sued Winchell and won an $8000 settlement, which he and his wife used to found Lyle Stuart, Inc.

Many of the represented lawsuits relating to money and contract disputes (including a forgery charge against Salvador Dalí), but the largest file is Steve Wynn's libel suit against Lyle Stuart and Stuart's subsequent countersuit. A biography of Wynn published by Stuart, Running Scared (1995) implied Wynn's Mafia-connections. While the initial case led to a $3 million defamation judgement against Stuart and Barricade Books, the judgement was eventually reversed on appeal.

Materials in this series consist of complaints, deposition transcripts, and other pre-trial and trial records. Some lawsuits include significant pre-trial research, including private investigator reports, as well as publicity-related clippings. Files are arranged by case citation, with the Wynn v Stuart case being significantly larger than the other files.