Federal Court Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Justice’s Billion Dollar Lawsuit Transferred To Virginia Court

A federal judge has ruled to move a civil court case involving Gov. Jim Justice from West Virginia to Virginia.

A network of Justice’s businesses filed the suit against his longtime banker, Carter Bank & Trust, saying the bank engaged in unfair banking practices.

Justice is suing Carter for about $1 billion.

The bank asked the court to move the case out of the Mountain State’s federal courthouse in Beckley, contending the majority of the business had been done in Virginia, and that is where the majority of the stakeholders reside.

Judge Frank Volk ultimately agreed, and the case has been moved to the Western District of Virginia’s federal court in Roanoke.

This will also move the case out of the state where Justice is the sitting governor and a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat.

Federal Court Orders Justice-Owned Companies To Pay $8.5 Million

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia has enforced a state court decision last year to award Western Surety more than $8.5 million, plus interest.

A federal court has placed liens on several companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice to satisfy a previous state court-ordered judgment.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia has enforced a state court decision last year to award Western Surety more than $8.5 million, plus interest.

The federal court placed charging orders, or liens, on Justice Coal of Kentucky, Justice Coal of West Virginia, Justice Management Services, Chestnut Land Holdings, Dublin Land, Twin Fir Estates and Justice Family Farms.

The judgment in favor of Western Surety was issued by the Circuit Court for Fairfax County, Virginia, in September. The award comes with post-judgment interest of 6 percent per annum.

In a separate case in the Western District of Virginia, Western Surety seeks another $3 million from Justice, Bluestone Resources and Southern Coal, alleging breach of contract.

Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, faces numerous legal challenges.

Another bond provider, Federal Insurance Co., sued Justice and four of his companies in June in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking $8.1 million in damages.

Last month, a $1.2 million helicopter was seized from Bluestone Resources to partially satisfy a debt owed to a Caribbean investment firm.

In February, 1st Source Bank, of South Bend, Indiana, sued Bluestone in the Virginia court, charging breach of contract and seeking $4.5 million in damages.

The complaint accuses Bluestone of defaulting on loan agreements and also seeks attorney’s fees and possession of collateral.

According to the complaint, that collateral consists of “equipment owned by Bluestone Coal” and three properties that are part of the Wintergreen Ski Resort near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Civil Penalty Of $1.4 Billion Sought In Union Carbide Landfill Case

Union Carbide has asked a federal judge to reject the proposed penalty, as well as Courtland’s proposed injunction under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Union Carbide has asked a federal judge to reject a proposed settlement over a landfill site in South Charleston.

Courtland, a real-estate company, has proposed that Union Carbide pay a civil penalty of $1.4 billion to settle a series of lawsuits over an inactive waste disposal site.

Last year, U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. ruled that the Filmont Landfill in South Charleston was an illegal open dump under federal law and that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by failing to seek a permit for the site.

Union Carbide has asked Copenhaver to reject the proposed penalty, as well as Courtland’s proposed injunction under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

That injunction would mean the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would supervise the cleanup of the site.

Union Carbide is working with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on a voluntary remediation plan. The company says Courtland’s proposal would delay the cleanup of the site.

Union Carbide cited testimony from David Carpenter, a licensed remediation specialist, that the voluntary program under DEP could get the site remediated by the end of 2026.

Carpenter testified that Courtland’s proposed injunction would extend the process by five to eight years.

The EPA’s program, the National Contingency Plan, is meant for sites that pose an imminent danger to the public, Carpenter said, and that the Filmont Landfill was not such a site.

Union Carbide operated the landfill for about 30 years, but its existence wasn’t widely known until a 2018 lawsuit in federal court in Charleston.

A landfill that discharges stormwater into navigable U.S. waterways must seek a permit under the Clean Water Act. Filmont is adjacent to Davis Creek, a tributary of the Kanawha River.

Union Carbide is a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.

Workers At 2 Allegheny Wood Products Mills Could Get A Reprieve

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia last week approved the sale of sawmills in Randolph and Greenbrier counties to a Pennsylvania flooring company.

Workers at two Allegheny Wood Products sawmills could get a reprieve after a federal judge approved the sale of those operations.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia last week approved the sale of sawmills in Randolph and Greenbrier counties to a Pennsylvania flooring company.

AHF will purchase the two sites from a court-appointed receiver for $7.5 million.

Allegheny Wood Products shuttered its operations in late February. In early March, United Bank, of Fairfax, Virginia, filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking $40.5 million in damages for unpaid principal and interest.

The sale could benefit only a fraction of the 900 Allegheny Wood Products workers who lost their jobs in February.

A worker in Mercer County filed a lawsuit in federal court last month, seeking class action status, alleging the company failed to provide 60 days notice before laying off workers.

Such warnings are required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.

EPA Proposes Settlement In Guyandotte Watershed Pollution Lawsuit

The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a settlement to a federal lawsuit over water pollution from coal mining.

The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

It establishes total daily maximum loads for ionic toxicity in the lower Guyandotte watershed.

Ionic toxicity, dissolved mineral salts that result from surface mining, can impair aquatic life.

The West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra club filed the lawsuit on March 18. It named Adam Ortiz, the EPA Region 3 Administrator, as a defendant.

The proposed settlement was published in the Federal Register on Friday. The public has until April 29 to submit comments.

New Lawsuit Names Justice, Involves More Properties Near Greenbrier

First Guaranty Bank of Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia last week against People’s Bank of Marietta, Ohio.

Gov. Jim Justice has been named in a new lawsuit involving multiple banks and claims on two properties adjacent to his Greenbrier Resort.

First Guaranty Bank of Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia last week against People’s Bank of Marietta, Ohio.

The complaint also names as defendants Carter Bank, the Virginia lender that’s one of Justice’s biggest creditors; three additional West Virginia banks; the Greenbrier Hotel Corporation; the Greenbrier Medical Institute; Justice and the Justice Family Group.

First Guaranty seeks to restore its claim to liens on two properties in Greenbrier County, the Old White Lot and Kate’s Mountain, totaling more than 2,800 acres.

The properties were collateral for a $6 million loan made by a predecessor of People’s Bank, Premier Bank of Ravenswood.

First Guaranty alleges that People’s Bank prepared a document in 2022 without First Guaranty’s knowledge stating that the loan had been paid in full and releasing the liens on the properties.

First Guaranty’s complaint calls the People’s Bank declaration “unauthorized and improper.”

First Guaranty seeks at least $75,000 in damages and for the court to declare that the $6 million has not been paid in full and that the properties have not been released.

It also asks for “further relief as the nature of this cause and the interests of justice may require.”

Justice, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, faces multiple lawsuits in multiple states involving his business empire. The creditors of his numerous companies have sought the repayment of millions of dollars.

Among them, Carter Bank has sought to claim other properties near the Greenbrier Resort as collateral for unpaid loans.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Roanoke, Virginia, ordered Justice’s Bluestone Resources to surrender a helicopter to partially satisfy a debt owed to a Caribbean investment firm.