Wirtz Corp. Ordered to Face Liquor Distributor Buyout Challenge

The billionaire Wirtz family lost its bid Monday to end litigation over a restructuring that forced minority investors out of an indirect stake in Breakthru Beverage Group LLC, a top liquor wholesaler.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge let the case move forward against Wirtz Corp. affiliates including the estate of Rocky Wirtz, late patriarch of the clan that owns the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. They “conceivably violated” the state’s short-form merger statute by completing the transaction while owning less than 90% of American Mart Corp., an intermediate holding company, the judge said.

She called their chief defense “confounding.” The ...