Why wine customers are toasting Bernie Kornberg
Wilmington, DE – Thousands of consumers whose wine collections were entangled in the complicated bankruptcy of a Napa Valley wine reseller, Underground Cellar, are raising their glasses to Practus LLP Insolvency and Commercial Litigation attorney, Bernie Kornberg.
Kornberg represents 40 out of 25,000 customers who lost access to their stash when Underground filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the District of Delaware last May. Filings state the company owes more than $25 million, which includes debt and wine that customers never received.
Successful Negotiation Recovers Wine
Underground’s biggest creditor, Triple Point, claimed the 500,000 bottles in storage were collateral not customers’ property and it wanted to assess people a 30% surcharge, based on each bottle’s MSRP, before sending them their wine. Amid thousands of creditors and a sea of lawyers, Kornberg got Triple Point to reduce that charge to 21% of the price paid, not the MSRP, which was significantly higher in many cases.
No Winners in Bankruptcy, Just Unique Solutions, and Finally, Wine
Kornberg says it shows the complexity of navigating a bankruptcy, “In bankruptcy, when everyone is fighting about whatever’s left, no one wins. But in this case we forged a unique solution that allowed customers to recover their wine rather than have a complete wipeout of recovery after years of litigation.”
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