Court Rules Brad Pitt Can Keep Winery Fight Alive Against Angelina Jolie

In a legal twist that keeps the Pitt-Jolie saga spinning, a California Court of Appeal handed Brad Pitt a procedural victory on Wednesday, June 24, by refusing to let Russian businessman Yuri Shefler walk away from the winery lawsuit unscathed. While the ruling doesn’t settle who’s right about the wine itself, it ensures the fight will continue — and that Shefler has to answer for his role in the deal.

Here’s the core dispute: Pitt claims that when Angelina Jolie sold her share of the Miraval winery to Tenute del Mondo (a subsidiary of the Stoli Group) in 2021, she violated an agreement that required his approval. He suddenly found himself an“unwilling partner”with Shefler, a situation he clearly didn’t sign up for. Shefler’s legal team argued he had minimal involvement in the actual negotiations, claiming he shouldn’t have to answer for the purchase in a California court. A lower court agreed with him — until the appeals court reversed that decision entirely.

The appellate judges found that because the agreement to buy Jolie’s shares was governed by California law, and because Shefler made direct contact with California residents and a California company during the purchase, he“purposefully availed himself of the benefits of a California forum.”Translation: you can’t do business in California and then pretend you have nothing to do with California courts. The decision also means Pitt and his investment company, Mondo Bongo, can recover costs from their appeal.

Jolie’s attorney Paul Murphy downplayed the significance in a statement, saying the ruling has no impact on the merits of the case and that Jolie is focused on defeating Pitt’s claims entirely at trial next year. But procedurally, Pitt just removed a major obstacle — Shefler can’t use geography as an escape hatch anymore.

The irony cutting through all this? While Pitt and Jolie battle over who gets to call shots on a French winery, their shared reality has shifted dramatically. The exes finally finalized their divorce in December 2024, a decade after separating. Since then, their children have taken action that strikes deeper than any court ruling: Shiloh, Maddox, and Zahara have all filed legal motions to remove Pitt’s last name, and Vivienne was credited as Vivienne Jolie during her work on Broadway’s The Outsiders. A source told Us that Pitt is“devastated”by these decisions — a consequence of family fracture that no courtroom victory can heal.