Jan. 20: Sealed-filings hearing in Uncle Nearest lawsuit
4:46 p.m. Jan. 15, 2026
Magistrate Judge Christopher H. Steger has scheduled a videoconference hearing as the court weighs confidentiality issues tied to the receivership and a pending motion for reconsideration.
DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor
A federal magistrate judge has set a hearing for January 20 to review several requests to keep court documents private in the high-profile Farm Credit Mid-America lawsuit involving Uncle Nearest Inc. and related companies.
A notice filed Thursday, Jan. 15, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee states that Magistrate Judge Christopher H. Steger will hold a videoconference at 4 p.m. to hear arguments on three motions to file documents under seal. These motions are part of ongoing disputes over whether the court should reconsider an earlier opinion and the order appointing a receiver in the case.
The motions include a request from Farm Credit Mid-America, PCA to file its response to the defendants’ motion for reconsideration under seal. The court-appointed receiver has made similar requests. All three motions involve documents that mention confidential financial and operational details from the receivership.
Farm Credit Mid-America says in its motion that its response to the reconsideration request depends on information from the receiver’s second quarterly report, which was filed under seal earlier this month. The lender argues that releasing its response would violate previous sealing orders and reveal proprietary information the court has already decided should remain confidential.
The reconsideration motion challenges both the court’s earlier decision and the order that appointed a receiver for Uncle Nearest Inc., Nearest Green Distillery Inc., Uncle Nearest Real Estate Holdings LLC, and individual defendants Fawn Weaver and Keith Weaver. The defendants have also asked to limit access to some proprietary information while the court reviews their request.
At the upcoming hearing, Judge Steger will decide if the disputed documents, such as the receiver’s status report and responses to the reconsideration motion, will stay private for now. The decision to seal or unseal these documents could affect transparency in the receivership and the larger lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. is assigned to the case, while Judge Steger handles pretrial and discovery matters.
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