The Lubavitcher Rebbe's grandson sold books from the movement's library as his inheritance; a federal court ruled the library was never the Rebbe's to leave

Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, sixth leader of Chabad, reached America in March 1940 and lived at 770 Eastern Parkway, bought that year by the movement's corporation, Agudas Chasidei Chabad. His library held the ksovim, manuscripts passed from Rebbe to Rebbe, and more than 40,000 books. His father's will had left him "all the books." He died in 1950 and his son-in-law Menachem Mendel Schneerson succeeded him. His widow Nechama Dina died in 1970; her will called the library the property of herself, her two daughters and her grandson. In April 1985 cameras filmed that grandson, Barry Gourary, a New Jersey businessman outside the movement, taking books from 770. He took more than 400 and sold more than 100 to dealers in the US, England, Switzerland and Israel, for a profit he put at $186,000. Agudas sued on 5 August 1985. Barry and his mother Hanna, the Rebbe's daughter, counterclaimed that the library was theirs by inheritance. After a trial without a jury, Judge Charles Sifton ruled on 6 January 1987 that the library was not part of the Rebbe's estate at his death. He found, citing a 1946 letter, that it had been delivered to Agudas "to be held in trust for the benefit of the religious community." The Second Circuit affirmed unanimously on 17 November 1987. Chabad bought back many of the books for more than Gourary received. The library remains at 770^†.