Nashville at law: Wine collection in bankruptcy auction [1]
A wine collection valued at some $2 million will go on sale soon if Nashville's U.S. Bankruptcy Court approves a request by Greg Daily, CEO of financial processor iPayment Inc.
Daily is selling out his cellar to fund reorganization efforts in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed in May after a Los Angeles jury awarded $300 million in damages [2] against him in a lawsuit brought by a former iPayment investor.
According to a July 27 filing with the court, Daily plans to consign the bottles to Zachys Wine Auctions of White Plains, N.Y. The auctioneer would receive up to $35,000 in commission on the sale, plus expenses.
Daily's friend and fellow Nashville entrepreneur Tom Black has written [3] about the love of fine wines that the two men share. Among the bottles from Daily's collection that Black has mentioned are magnums of Château Lafite Rothschild from 1959, as well as a 1961 Château Latour à Pomerol. On wine sale Web sites, those vintages go for as much as $12,000 a bottle. Black also mentions a 1989 Château Haut Brion, which can sell for up to $6,000.
U.S. Customs records show that Daily imported a shipment of Shiraz from the boutique Greenock Creek Vineyard in South Australia last year. That stuff is mere plonk compared to his French holdings, selling for no more than $600 a bottle and described by one of its own distributors as a wine that "can be quite hairy and feral." Daily must like it, though: His cargo weighed in at about 370 pounds.
Bill Norton of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings is Daily's lead bankruptcy attorney.
Other legal news of late:
United States District Court
Fred Westfield v. Federal Republic of Germany. Dismissed July 28. Retired Vanderbilt University economics professor Fred Westfield loses his legal battle [4] to hold today's German government responsible for the Nazi regime's seizure in 1939 of a large and famed art collection owned by his uncle, who later perished in the Holocaust.
The lawsuit asserted Germany could not claim state immunity under the terms of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act because it was acting in a commercial capacity when it seized and sold off the paintings. Judge Todd J. Campbell, however, cited a prior ruling in finding that "this court does not have jurisdiction, 'however monstrous' the alleged conduct" may have been.
Plaintiff's attorneys: Overton Thompson III and Kathryn Hannen Walker of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC; Jeffrey Schoenblum of Vanderbilt University Law School. Defendant's attorneys: James A. Beakes III and William S. Walton of Miller & Martin PLLC, as local counsel with a Washington, D.C. lawyer. [5]
Nashville Urban Venture LLC and Velocity in the Gulch Inc. v. CSX Transportation Inc. [5] Filed July 30. Developers of Velocity, the newest piece of The Gulch's growing line of high-end condos and mixed-use projects, accuse rail company CSX of not paying for environmental clean-up costs.
The litigation stems from an agreement put in place when Bristol Development, the project's developers, originally purchased The Gulch property from the Virginia-based rail giant in 2007. According to the filing, an August 1998 study by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation found high levels of arsenic, lead and chemicals in the area's surface and subsurface soil. A clause in the purchase agreement specified that CSX would cover the cost of remedying the contamination.
The complaint says Velocity's builders paid for the “excavating, removing, hauling and disposing of surface and subsurface soil” that was contaminated, at a total cost of more than $2.5 million. It billed CSX but alleges the company has yet to pay, breaching its obligations.
The rail company did not return calls seeking comment. Plaintiff's attorneys: Woody Woodruff, Michael K. Stagg and Eileen Burkhalter Smith of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP. [5]
Jeffrey D. and Angelyn McDonald v. Allied Waste Transportation Inc. and Mack Trucks Inc. [5] Filed July 27. "A dump truck is in your house." That's the message a neighbor left for Jeffrey McDonald while he was at work one day in 2007.
An Allied garbage truck had been making the rounds of the McDonalds' neighborhood that day. The vehicle was a brand-new Mack LE6 in its first day of service. When the driver put on the parking brake and got out of the truck, it suddenly rolled backwards, picked up speed as it headed down the street and crashed into the River Bend Circle home the McDonalds had lived in for 11 years.
The lawsuit alleges the malfunction stemmed from a problem for which Mack had issued a recall. It claims that Mack admitted liability to Allied, but says that even so, the couple endured a protracted back-and-forth with insurance companies for a year following the incident.
The couple is suing for compensatory and punitive damages of $400,000 and $2 million, respectively. Plaintiff's attorney: Alan Mark Turk with Neal & Harwell.
Mack Trucks' attorney, Malcolm McCune of Blackburn & McCune, could not be reached for comment.
Health Communications Inc. v. Christopher Phillips. Dismissed July 29. Health Communications, an Arlington. Va.-based supplier of training products for servers of alcoholic drinks, asserted in its May 2008 complaint [6] that Phillips, of Murfreesboro, had copy-catted its training materials. It sought at least $150,000 in damages. The parties have mutually agreed to drop the case.
Plaintiff's attorney: Bob Boston of Waller Lansden, as local counsel with three lawyers from Virginia. Defendant's attorney: Mark T. Freeman, Nashville.
- Legal [7]
- Los Angeles, Calif. [8]
- Nashville [9]
- White Plains, N.Y. [10]
- Bass, Berry & Sims PLC [11]
- Blackburn, McCune, Happell & Zenner PLLC [12]
- Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP [13]
- Bristol Development Group LLC [14]
- iPayment Inc. [15]
- Miller & Martin PLLC [16]
- Neal & Harwell PLC [17]
- Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP [18]
- Zachys Wine Auctions Inc. [19]
- Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation [20]
- Vanderbilt University School of Law [21]
- William L. Norton III [22]
- Alan M. Turk [23]
- Eileen Burkhalter Smith [24]
- Gregory S. Daily [25]
- James A. Beakes III [26]
- Jeffrey Schoenblum [27]
- Joseph A. 'Woody' Woodruff [28]
- Kathryn Hannen Walker [29]
- Malcolm L. McCune [30]
- Mark T. Freeman [31]
- Michael K. Stagg [32]
- Overton Thompson III [33]
- Robert E. Boston [34]
- Thomas L. Black [35]
- William S. Walton [36]
- Bankruptcy [37]
- Litigation [38]
- Print Edition [39]