BECKLEY – A circuit judge has issued an order granting a $6.6 million summary judgment against one of Gov. Jim Justice’s family of companies.
Raleigh Circuit Judge Robert A. Burnside issued the order November 3 in favor of Glade Springs Village Property Owners Association Inc.
The case began in late 2019 when Justice Holdings LLC filed a civil complaint against the association seeking amounts due under a loan agreement. Justice Holdings claimed original developer Cooper Land Development Inc. agreed to loan the association $15 million to fund the construction and installation of water, sewer and electric utilities in the development. Justice Holdings is the successor developer to Cooper Land.
In April 2020, the property owners association filed a counterclaim seeking judgment against Justice Holdings for unpaid assessments on lots the company repurchased.
“Since July 31, 2014, Justice Holdings had been ‘offsetting’ its statutory and contractual assessment obligations to GSVPOA … with regard to the Justice Lots against the claimed indebtedness under the loan agreement,” Burnside’s order states. “GSVPOA thus also seeks summary judgment against Justice Holdings for the unpaid, offset assessments, including interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum.
“In addition, GSVPOA seeks judgment against Justice Holdings for reimbursement of $545,000.00 representing payments from GSVPOA accounts tendered to Justice Holdings by the Justice-appointed board under the loan agreement.”
In October 2020, Burnside ruled the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act applied to Glade Springs Village from its inception, and he ruled the provision that would have exempted the developer from assessment liability was invalid.
Thus, that order granted GSVPOA summary declaratory judgment and said the association was entitled to monetary judgments for unpaid assessments against Justice Holdings and that those judgments should include an amount equal to the unpaid annual assessments on the lots within Glade Springs Village.
The total assessment liability on all lots or units within Glade Springs Village owned by and assessed in the name of Justice Holdings through August 31, 2021, is $6,073,692.18.
The order also grants summary judgment of $545,000 for payments made by GSVPOA under the now-terminated loan agreement. It also grants attorney fees, court costs and 10 percent interest.
In addition, the property owners association has a lien on 500 parcels of land owned by Justice Holdings.
The GSVPOA is being represented by Mark Sadd and Ramonda Marling of Lewis Glasser in Charleston.
There are two other related cases still pending in Raleigh Circuit Court.
Raleigh Circuit Court case numbers 19-C-481 (Justice Holdings original complaint) and 21-C-129 (GSVPOA counterclaim)