Brad Pitt scored a legal win in his and Angelina Jolie‘s ongoing court battle over their French winery.
Us Weekly can confirm that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Château Miraval case heading to trial — and Pitt’s remaining claims against Jolie, 49, have been allowed to proceed. The judge upheld that there was an implied contract regarding shares in the holding company, and Pitt’s claims were valid on two counts of interference.
A trial date has not been set, but it could potentially be decided in April.
The update in the cast comes after a judge previously shut down Jolie’s attempts to have the case tossed. Pitt, 60, and Jolie, who likely will be deposed in the case, might have to wait until 2026 to actually take the stand.
“The court’s decision simply means that Mr. Pitt must now actually prove his case. In truth, Mr. Pitt rejected, in writing, the very contract he now claims he had with Angelina,” Jolie’s attorney Paul Murphy said in a statement to Us Weekly. “Then, after she filed under seal evidence of domestic abuse, he pulled his offer to buy out Angelina’s share of Miraval unless she signed a revised NDA now expanded to cover Mr. Pitt’s personal conduct.”
In February 2022, Pitt filed a lawsuit claiming Jolie illegally sold her shares after they previously agreed only to do so with each other’s approval. In court documents obtained by Us, Pitt accused Jolie of “vindictively” giving up her share since he was never given the chance to match or outbid her offer.
“Pitt and Jolie purchased the château as a home to share with their children and the vineyard as a family business,” the court documents read. “They agreed they would never sell their respective interests in Miraval without the other’s consent. The couple spent the holidays at Miraval with their children and were married there in 2014.”
The former couple called it quits in 2016 after two years of marriage and more than a decade together. Shortly before their split, the pair made headlines when Pitt was the subject of a child abuse investigation due to an alleged incident on the family’s jet. He was later cleared by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
While Pitt and Jolie were declared legally single in 2019, the duo have spent years wrapped up in legal disputes over their French vineyard and custody of their minor children. (The pair share six kids: Maddox, 22, Pax, 19, Zahara, 18, Shiloh, 17, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 15.)
Pitt suffered a setback earlier this year when a judge dismissed several of his complaints against Jolie regarding the property.
“The judge dismissed most of Mr. Pitt’s claims because they don’t have a legal basis,” Jolie’s attorney said in a statement, noting that she had “no ill will toward” her estranged husband. “Mr. Pitt’s lawsuit has never been about a business dispute; instead, it is about his attempts to cover up serious abuse, and we are gratified the judge has thrown out so much of Mr. Pitt’s complaint.”
