[squirrelicus]

Ancestry developed relationships with many archival sources for a damn good reason. They have developed non trivial processes, equipment, and trained staff that treat the records with care. When I worked there it was a badge of honor for their document processing division that they were the only entity essentially allowed to just walk into the National Archives and take whatever they wanted to digitize, because they were known and trusted to return the extraordinarily fragile documents unharmed. Reputation matters. Presumably the cost that the plaintiff incurred was a form of insurance or "are you really seriously sure you have the capital to treat this stuff with care?"

I am not a lawyer and I might be making it all up.