Eagles co-founder Don Henley has filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan to recover his original handwritten lyrics and notes from the band's "Hotel California" album. This legal action follows the recent dismissal of criminal charges against three collectibles dealers who were accused of attempting to sell the documents.

Photo Credit: Steve Alexander / CC by 2.0

The 100-page manuscript, currently in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, remains at the center of a complex ownership dispute. Henley's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, argues that these personal lyric sheets belong to Henley and his family, who never authorized their sale.

The lawsuit names two defendants: Craig Inciardi, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator, and Edward Kosinski, a rock memorabilia dealer. Glenn Horowitz, a rare books dealer previously involved in the criminal case, is not named in the current suit as he makes no ownership claims to the documents.

The defendants' attorneys, Shawn Crowley and Stacey Richman, maintain that Henley gave the manuscript to a writer for an unpublished Eagles biography decades ago, after which it was legally sold to Horowitz, who then sold it to Inciardi and Kosinski. They have called the new lawsuit "baseless" and plan to counter-sue Henley.

The criminal case was dismissed in March after Judge Curtis Farber determined that Henley had withheld information from prosecutors. Over 6,000 pages of communications between Henley and his legal team were only made available after a last-minute decision to waive attorney-client privilege.

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