CHARLESTON – A judge in Fayette County, Kentucky, has ordered Gov. Jim Justice to pay more than $9 million for a defaulted loan from a 2014 judgment in that state.
The notice of filing foreign judgment was filed on Jan. 23 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
On Feb. 21, 2014, Fayette Circuit Court-Civil Branch in Kentucky entered an agreed judgment in favor of the Jacobe Company and the J. Hoke Company against Justice in the amount of $9,487,937.34.
The judgment also ordered Justice to pay interest on the unpaid balance from Feb. 9, 2014, at the rate of 12 percent per annum, compounded annually, as well as attorneys’ fees in the amount of $15,000, according to the notice.
The Jacobe Company and J. Hoke Company are based on Harrogate, Tennessee.
Justice is the richest man in West Virginia, but he and his companies – including The Greenbrier resort – have built a reputation of not paying bills, being involved in multiple lawsuits and collecting fines for violations at his various coal operations. A 2016 NPR investigation showed Justice’s mining companies owed $15 million in six states.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 18-P-25