Brad Pitt scores victory over $350 million fight with ex Angelina Jolie
The court ruling is the latest saga in the bitter divorce of the former love birds turned legal enemies.
Brad Pitt has scored another legal victory in his acrimonious battle with ex Angelina Jolie over their French vineyard.
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star, 60, is trying to reverse Jolie’s 2021 sale of her stake in the Chateau Miraval winery to Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler.
The US Sun reports that Pitt racked up a win in a French court last week over documents seized by bailiffs in a raid.
The judgment is the third in a series of legal setbacks to hit Shefler – branded a “bully” by Pitt - and Jolie in recent months in the so-called War of the Rosé.
A source close to Pitt said, “There’s a long way to go in this litigation, but at the moment, the momentum is certainly with Brad.
“From the moment this hostile takeover bid began, he made it clear that he wasn’t going to be bullied - and he meant it.
“He has stood his ground and will continue to do what is right.”
Winery raid
The ruling by the court in France was related to a raid at the winery in March 2022.
Court officers wielding search warrants swooped to seize company documents and IT material after Shefler made claims of malfeasance and misuse of company assets before a commercial judge.
French law allows businesses in litigation to enter the premises of their adversaries and seize evidence of suspected fraud.
But a court later reversed that decision, meaning the dossier of contracts, invoices, and emails remained locked and sealed pending an appeal by Shefler’s drinks empire.
On Thursday, the Aix-en-Provence appellate court in France issued a further ruling against Shelfer’s appeal and denied his firm, Nouvel, access to the documents.
Presiding Judge Valerie Gerard ruled that Nouvel had no legal standing to ask for the seizure of documents controlled by SA Chateau Miraval – the French company set up by Pitt, which owns the 1300-acre estate – because it is only an indirect shareholder.
Shefler’s firm was also ordered to pay €20,000 (around $A33,000) in legal costs, and it’s believed the documents will now be returned to Chateau Miraval’s safe.
It came after earlier this month, when a judge in Los Angeles rejected Angelina Jolie’s attempts to throw out Pitt’s lawsuit against her.
It meant the case cleared a key hurdle to go to trial.
And, in November, a court in Luxembourg provisionally stripped vodka tycoon Shefler of some of his shares, effectively making Brad Pitt the majority shareholder.
Rosé beginnings
Pitt and Jolie bought the 1300-acre Miraval estate in Provence, Southern France, in 2008 and married there in 2014.
The celebrity couple then divorced two years later in 2016.
Jolie secretly negotiated the sale of her stake to alcohol tycoon Shefler’s group for $64 million through her investment firm Nouvel.
She inked the deal with Shefler shortly after a judge granted Pitt 50/50 custody of their children as part of their bitter divorce.
It allegedly breached an agreement that she would offer Pitt first refusal and not sell without his consent.
‘Threatened’
The US Sun revealed last month that Pitt had accused Shefler, 56, of trying to “threaten” him with smears in their battle over Miraval.
The actor claimed in court docs that, after “secretly” buying Nouvel, Shefler unilaterally put out a press release announcing their “partnership” and then demanded the pair meet for talks.
Pitt says he was “ultimately threatened” if he didn’t co-operate.
The legal documents obtained by the US Sun stated:
“Shefler personally took action to foster his supposed partnership with Pitt after the transaction closed, writing Pitt repeatedly to bully him into going along.”
Shefler claims the court has no jurisdiction to hear a full trial on the matter.
His legal team has previously described Pitt as “an actor, not a winemaker” and added that he “deals in illusions, not dirt and grapes”.
This article originally appeared on the US Sun and was reproduced with permission
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