A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a bizarre lawsuit by defunct New York City wine shop Sherry-Lehmann accusing its former owners and a prize-winning journalist of conspiring to smear the company, according to court flings.
Sherry-Lehman — which shuttered its iconic Park Avenue store in 2023 amid lawsuits from multiple customers who said they never received wine they’d paid for — tried to lay the blame for its demise on New York Times scribe James B. Stewart and several former CEOs of the company.
The retailer argued that Stewart and the previous execs stood to gain from the alleged smear campaign and thus violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, Act — a statute known for being used in anti-mafia cases.
In dismissing the case in Manhattan, US District Judge Andrew Carter said, “Sherry-Lehmann is unable to articulate one of the key elements of RICO,” that Stewart and the former execs — Chris Adams, Michael Yurch and previous owner Michael Aaron – engaged in racketeering activity.
Prior to Tuesday’s decision, Sherry-Lehmann’s attorney John Balestriere asked the court to quit the case because of “substantial outstanding legal fees,” according to filings. The request was granted, and the judge gave Sherry-Lehmann 30 days to get new legal representation.
The dismissed suit claimed that the Pulitzer-Prize winning Stewart wrote “damaging false information about Sherry-Lehmann” and “orchestrated” a smear campaign with other news outlets – including The Post – and the former execs.
Stewart’s alleged goal was to “garner a Pulitzer Prize” for his reporting on the downfall of the century-old retailer, according to the complaint.
The suit singled him out for a May 25, 2023 article reporting that some of the wine belonging to the company’s storage customers had been illegally sold to others. Sherry-Lehman denied that in the complaint.
The store claimed that “corrupt, self-serving journalists,” along with former executives, managers, retail and union employees, were all seeking to “inflict the maximum amount of pain” on the current owners of the business, Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer.
Aaron, whose family founded Sherry-Lehman, Yurch and Adams are being sued in a separate lawsuit filed in 2023 by Sherry-Lehmann’s landlord Glorious Sun, which claims they are liable for unpaid rent on the store.
The three former executives argued that they severed ties with the business long before its decline and have no stake in it, according to court documents.
In its suit, Sherry-Lehmann argued that the negative media attention resulted in law enforcement, including the FBI and and US Postal inspectors, raiding its swanky Park Avenue store and its storage business, Wine Caves, in Pearl River, NY.
The raids in 2023 and 2024 resulted in canceled orders from customers, and potential acquirers, according to the complaint.
Best known for his 1991 book “Den of Thieves” about the Michael Milken insider trading scandal, Stewart won a Pulitzer in 1987 for his coverage of the stock market crash while working for the Wall Street Journal.
Aaron and Adams declined to comment, while Stewart and Yurch did not immediately respond. Gilmer and Green could not be reached.