Brad Pitt scored a win in his ongoing lawsuit against Angelina Jolie over the exes’ ongoing winery drama.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the California Court of Appeal sided with Pitt, 62, on Wednesday June 24, overruling a lower court’s decision that allowed Russian businessman Yuri Shefler to walk away from the lawsuit.
In the docs, Pitt claimed that after Jolie, 51, sold her shares of the winery to Tenute del Mondo, which is a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, in 2021, he became an “unwilling partner” of Shefler.
Shefler previously argued in his motion to quash that he had “minimal involvement in the negotiations for Tenute to purchase Miraval.” A lower court sided with Shefler, stating that Pitt “failed to present evidence that Shefler purposefully availed himself of the benefits of doing business in California.”
However, the Court of Appeal found that the agreement to purchase Jolie’s shares “was governed by California law.” The California court ruled that Shelfer’s motion was reversed and that Pitt, plus his investment company, Mondo Bongo, are also allowed to recover costs from their appeal.
“It was these contacts by Shefler with California in purchasing a California company from a California resident that caused the injury to another California resident and California company that is the subject of the lawsuit,” the decision read. “On these facts, Shefler purposefully availed himself of the benefits of a California forum, and the controversy arose out of his contacts with the forum. We reverse.”
Jolie’s attorney Paul Murphy addressed the ruling in a statement to Us on Thursday, June 25.
“The ruling has no impact on the merits of the case, and certainly has no impact on Ms. Jolie’s case,” the statement read. “At this point, Ms. Jolie is just looking forward to defeating the case at trial next year so that their family can finally focus their energies on healing and moving on.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Pitt’s spokesperson for comment.
Pitt and Jolie were together for 12 years and married from 2014 to 2016. They share six children: Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, Shiloh, 20, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 17.
The exes’ legal back and forth started in 2022 after Pitt sued Jolie for allegedly selling her share of the French winery without getting his approval as outlined in an alleged agreement between them. Jolie previously claimed in a countersuit that no two-party consent agreement existed and she tried to arrange a buyout with Pitt, who allegedly refused unless the actress signed an NDA.
While Pitt and Jolie have been separated for a decade, their divorce was not finalized until December 2024. Since their split, Pitt and Jolie’s children have seemingly distanced themselves from their father. Shiloh, Maddox and Zahara have all taken legal action to remove their father’s last name. Vivienne, for her part, was previously credited as Vivienne Jolie during her work on the Broadway show The Outsiders.
In a recent Us cover story, a source told Us that Pitt is “devastated” by his kids’ decisions to change their names.
