Judgment of $40M+ sought against Justice, companies in Greenbrier Hotel-tied lawsuit

McCormick 101 LLC, the Maryland-based owner of the loan, sued Justice and his companies on July 18 in a New York trial court, saying the balance due under a 2014 $142 million loan the bank made to Justice was $40.2 million as of July 15 — 17 days past its maturity date.

McCormick 101 said the $40.2 million excluded legal fees and that it’s entitled to recover interest accruing on the loan at a 14.84% rate. The $40.2 million is comprised of roughly $24.1 million in principal and $16.1 million in interest, according to the lawsuit.

Listed alongside Justice as defendants are James C. Justice Companies Inc., Justice Holdings LLC, GSR LLC, Wintergreen Partners Inc. and Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

New York-based JPMorgan Chase Bank assigned the Maryland company, McCormick 101 LLC, all its right, title and interest in the loan on July 2, according to the lawsuit.

The Greenbrier Hotel has been scheduled for a public auction to the highest bidder at 2 p.m. on Aug. 27 at the Greenbrier County Courthouse, according to a trustee’s sale notice published Wednesday by the Lewisburg-based West Virginia Daily News.

A statement released to the Gazette-Mail Friday by Cam Huffman of The Greenbrier claimed JPMorgan notified Justice on July 1 it had sold its loan to Beltway Capital Management, the servicer of the loan, and that Beltway immediately declared the loan to be in default. Huffman’s LinkedIn page identifies him as public relations and content director for The Greenbrier.

The statement called JPMorgan’s move a “political stunt,” and quotes Michigan-based attorney Bob Wolford as saying on the Justice family’s behalf that The Greenbrier will not be sold, and that the Justice family would act as needed to ensure there are no adverse effects on its ownership of The Greenbrier or the resort’s operations.

But an assistant for Wolford, of the law firm Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey PLC, told the Gazette-Mail when asked to share or confirm the statement that “we didn’t have anything to do with that [statement].”

Wolford did not respond to requests for comment. Neither legal counsel for Justice family companies nor Justice’s Senate campaign responded to requests for comment.

Justice executed amended promissory notes in 2016, 2017 and 2023, according to the lawsuit.

A Dec. 29, 2023, forbearance agreement signed by Justice and JPMorgan Chase managing director Joey Orr admitted defaults, including failures to make payments in 2018 and violations of the 2014 trust deed from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. The document also was signed by Justice’s son Jay Justice as president of four of the companies and director of the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. admitted defaults, including failures to make payments in 2018 and violations of the 2014 trust deed from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

The Huffman-released statement said the governor and JPMorgan have been working in good faith under a mutual agreement since 2021 under which the governor’s debt to JPMorgan has been reduced to $9.4 million.

A McCormick 101 representative declined to comment Friday.

Justice business troubles piling upThe 60.5-acre property slated for foreclosure is a key asset for the Justice family, whose financial woes have added up amid the governor’s run for a U.S. Senate seat on the Republican ticket.

In June, the Justice family and a Virginia bank announced the settlement of a dispute in which the bank has sought $300 million-plus in debt from the Justices. The Virginia-based Carter Bank & Trust reported the Justices paid off just $7.8 million of a $301.9 million debt as of the end of the first quarter.

Carter Bank had set up an auction of Greenbrier Sporting Club Development Co. and Greenbrier Sporting Club parcels scheduled for March to help satisfy the debt prior to the deal.

Nearly 300 West Virginia properties owned by Justice or his businesses — on which they owed almost $400,000 in delinquent taxes — went up for sale in public auctions in June 2023.

Roughly 95% of those properties sold to other buyers for just over $500,000, according to a Gazette-Mail review of State Auditor’s Office data.

In June 2024, a Delaware federal court approved the sale of shares of a key holding company in that empire to satisfy what has been an eight-figure debt owed by a Justice coal company.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has issued an order approving the sale of shares held by Justice-owned Bluestone Resources Inc. in Bluestone Mineral Inc., a holding company that court documents indicate houses a wide range of energy companies controlled by Justice and his family.