Property in a private club owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is scheduled to head to auction next month as Martinsville-based Carter Bank & Trust works to recover more than $300 million in unpaid loans from members of the Justice family and their businesses.
A public notice in Tuesday’s edition of the Charleston Gazette-Mail said more than 40 lots and other parcels comprising The Greenbrier Sporting Club will go up for auction at 11 a.m. March 5 in front of the Greenbrier County Courthouse in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
The club was used to secure a loan from Carter Bank & Trust. According to the newspaper notice, the bank requested the property auction to satisfy that debt.
Last month, a Martinsville judge denied a request to set aside judgment claims that the bank filed last spring against Jim Justice; his wife, Cathy; their son, Jay; and multiple family-owned businesses, seeking the balance of approximately $302 million in unpaid loans due April 15 plus interest and attorneys’ fees.
“Carter Bank plans to pursue aggressively all remedies afforded it to collect all amounts due and owing by the Justice Entities,” the bank said in a statement after the judge’s ruling.
The more than $300 million in loans were personally guaranteed by Jim and Cathy Justice and some were also guaranteed by Jay Justice, who runs many of the family’s businesses. The Justices have more than 100 coal mining, agricultural and hospitality companies in Virginia and West Virginia.
The Greenbrier is a luxury resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The Greenbrier Sporting Club is a “private equity club organized for the purpose of offering memberships to those that purchase real estate at The Greenbrier,” featuring a golf course, lodges, a restaurant and other amenities, according to its website.
The notice of auction comes after the Justices unsuccessfully tried to convince Martinsville Circuit Judge G. Carter Greer to set aside the bank’s judgment claims, known as confessions of judgments. A confession of judgment is an agreement in a loan that allows a creditor to obtain judgment against a debtor without having to go to trial if the debtor fails to pay.
Greer issued his opinion denying the request in a letter dated Jan. 22. A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 14 in Martinsville Circuit Court to formally enter the order upholding the judge’s opinion.
Carter Bank & Trust, a community bank with $4.5 billion in assets and more than 60 locations in Virginia and North Carolina, has argued that the Justices and their businesses are stalling on repaying the money they owe despite the bank’s repeated efforts to cooperate with them.
The Justices have accused Carter Bank of “obstructive conduct” since new management took over after the 2017 death of bank founder Worth Carter Jr. They have alleged that the bank deliberately induced them into defaulting on their loans and is preventing them from working with other lenders, all to preserve millions of dollars in annual interest.
Carter Bank & Trust has called the allegations “inflammatory and baseless.”
