New Glarus Brewing co-founder and president Deb Carey has filed a lawsuit against the law firm that sued her in August on behalf of three minority investors, as well as several unnamed media outlets that ran a press release provided by the firm.
Carey’s lawyers allege the press release that Middleton, Wisconsin-based Palmersheim Dettmann circulated “contains multiple false statements and creates false implications with regard to Carey.” The New Glarus, Wisconsin-headquartered brewery, the nation’s 12th largest craft brewery by volume according to the Brewers Association, is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
In the press release and related complaint, Palmersheim Dettmann claimed that New Glarus has “compiled $100 million in retained earnings and $40 million in cash, and repeatedly refused to distribute any of those profits and reserves beyond the tax distributions that are specified in the shareholder agreement.” Carey refuted these claims to Brewbound in August, and reiterated that rebuttal in the defamation lawsuit, which was filed on September 24 in Wisconsin’s Dane County Circuit Court.
“The false implication is that Carey personally and improperly retained over $100 million, with over $40 million in cash, of brewery money,” Carey’s attorneys, Mark E. Schmidt and Nicholas D. Castronovo of Von Briesen & Roper, wrote. “Multiple media reports repeated the false statements and false implications contained in the press release which, upon information and belief, Palmersheim Dettmann transmitted via email to media outlets.”
Speaking to Brewbound in August, Carey pointed to a two-year state audit that resulted in the brewery receiving a refund of more than $100,000 from the state as proof that the investors’ claim is false.
“You think they wouldn’t have noticed that I pilfered $100 million?” she asked.
Carey’s lawsuit names Palmersheim Dettmann and up to 50 John and Jane Does, “as-of-yet unknown individuals who, upon information and belief, participated in the publication of the defamatory communications described herein and who are expected to be added as parties to this case upon discovery of their identities.”
Schmidt and Castronovo included three news stories written about the investor lawsuit, filed by plaintiffs Steven Speer of Camas, Washington; Roderick Runyan of Lawrence, Kansas; and Karin Eichhoff of Middleton, Wisconsin. Combined, their shares of New Glarus Brewing amount to 12.46%. Brewbound published a story about their lawsuit, but it was not one of the three Carey’s legal team cited.
“The false statements and false implications in the press release have directly and proximately caused material harm to Carey including economic damage, damage to her reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, mental suffering and emotional distress and this damage is ongoing in nature and will continue to be suffered in the future,” Schmidt and Castronovo wrote.
“The false statements and false implications in the press release were made with envy, ill will, bad intent, malevolence, spite, revenge and other bad motives towards Carey such that express malice is present,” they continued.
Carey is seeking a jury trial and to be awarded “compensatory, general, special, consequential and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial,” as well as costs, disbursements and attorney fees.
A request for comment from Palmersheim Dettmann was unreturned at presstime.