By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher

WINCHESTER, Tenn. — One day after U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr. refused to end the court-appointed receivership overseeing Uncle Nearest, Inc. and found company founder Fawn Weaver to be a non-credible witness, Weaver and her husband Keith Weaver filed a notice of appeal, asking the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the ruling.

Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is a Bedford County distillery with deep ties to Lynchburg. The company was founded by Fawn Weaver in 2017 to honor Nathan “Nearest” Green, the formerly enslaved Black man credited with teaching Jack Daniel how to make whiskey.

The appeal, filed on Wednesday as Document 200 in Farm Credit Mid-America, PCA v. Uncle Nearest, Inc., et al., Case No. 4:25-cv-38, challenges the 62-page order issued the previous day by U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr. The appellants are Fawn Weaver, Keith Weaver, and Grant Sidney, Inc., Fawn Weaver’s personal holding company, which Judge Atchley pulled into the receivership as part of the same ruling. All three are represented by Michael E. Collins of Manier & Herod, P.C., in Nashville.

The notice of appeal also lists as parties six other Weaver-affiliated entities — Humble Baron, Inc., Shelbyville Barrel House BBQ, LLC, Nashwood, Inc., Shelbyville Grand, LLC, Quill & Cask Owner, LLC, and 4 Front Street, LLC — all of which were named in the receiver’s motion to expand the receivership but excluded by Judge Atchley’s order, at least for now.

{Editor’s Note: This article is based on Document 200 filed May 27, 2026, in Farm Credit Mid-America, PCA v. Uncle Nearest, Inc., et al., Case No. 4:25-cv-38, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Winchester Division. The document is a public record available through the federal court’s PACER system.}

WHAT THE WEAVERS ARE CHALLENGING

Judge Atchley’s May 26 order resolved two long-pending motions in the case. The first, brought by the Weavers, asked the court to end the receivership of Uncle Nearest entirely, arguing that circumstances had materially changed since receiver Phillip G. Young, Jr. was appointed in August 2025. The judge denied that motion, finding Uncle Nearest insolvent by a wide margin, its leadership responsible for concealing a $20 million loan from its primary lender, and the receivership itself beneficial to the company’s financial health.

The second motion, brought by the receiver, asked the court to expand the receivership to include several Weaver-affiliated entities. Judge Atchley granted that motion as to Grant Sidney, Inc. — finding it had been used to hide $20 million that Uncle Nearest received in early 2026 through convertible promissory notes from a third party identified in court records as MP-Tenn LLC from Farm Credit — but declined to include the other six entities, leaving the door open for future action.

Filing a notice of appeal is a procedural step, not a reversal. The receivership remains in place. Receiver Phillip Young continues to oversee Uncle Nearest’s operations, and the prohibition on selling or transferring Grant Sidney’s assets — ordered by Judge Atchley pending his 60-day investigation report — also remains in effect.

The Weavers are appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which covers Tennessee along with five other states. Appeals of this type — challenging the continuation or scope of a federal equity receivership — face a significant legal headwind: appellate courts review such decisions for abuse of discretion, a standard that gives the district court substantial deference. Judge Atchley’s 62-page opinion, grounded in detailed factual findings on solvency, fraud, and credibility, was written in a way that makes that standard difficult to meet.

The credibility finding is particularly notable. Because an appellate court does not hold its own evidentiary hearings, it typically defers to a trial judge’s assessments of witness credibility. Judge Atchley’s written determination that Weaver’s testimony “has been guided by the story she believes best serves her personal interests, irrespective of its relation to the truth” — reached after observing her on the witness stand — will be difficult to dislodge on appeal.

What the appeal does accomplish is buying time. Federal appeals typically take months, sometimes well over a year, to be fully briefed and decided. The Weavers may also seek a stay of the district court’s order from the Sixth Circuit while the appeal is pending — though obtaining such a stay would require them to show, among other things, a likelihood of success on the merits. Given the scope of Judge Atchley’s findings, that bar could be be hard to clear.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Several threads remain active in the district court regardless of the appeal. The receiver has 60 days from the May 26 order to investigate Grant Sidney’s holdings and report to Judge Atchley on whether the holding company should remain in receivership. A pending sanctions motion — in which the receiver seeks a gag order against Fawn Weaver — has not yet been ruled on. And the receiver’s effort to identify a stalking horse bidder for Uncle Nearest’s assets, described as a priority before the end of April, has not produced a public announcement as of this writing. •

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