ROANOKE, Virginia – A Chicago-based surety company has asked a federal court to approve liens against West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and two of his companies for failing to pay a court-ordered judgment of more than $8.5 million.
Western Surety Company filed the order February 15 against Southern Coal Company, Bluestone Resources and Justice personally. On February 21, it filed an application for entry of charging orders, which are court-ordered liens placed by creditors for distributions from businesses. It asks for the charging orders to be entered against eight Justice companies: Justice Coal of Kentucky, Justice Coal of West Virginia, Justice Management Services, Black River Coal, Chestnut Land Holdings, Dublin Land, Twin Fir Estates and Justice Family Farms.
On September 7, a Fairfax County (Virginia) judge entered an order in favor of Surety against the Justice companies for more than $8.5 million.
“To date, no payments have been made on the judgment,” the February 21 application states. “The judgment debtor (Justice) owns membership interests in each of the companies. …
“Western Surety Company, as a judgment creditor of the judgment debtor, is entitled to charge the membership interests of the judgment debtor in the companies with payment of all amounts due under the judgment, and to receive from the companies all distributions on account of such membership interest.
“While any charging order is in effect with respect to the judgment debtor’s membership interests in the companies, the judgment debtor should not be permitted to transfer or encumber such membership interests.”
In court filings in a separate federal lawsuit against Justice, Southern Coal and Bluestone Resources, Western Surety seeks $3 million more because it says the defendants breached an indemnity agreement by not paying enough to cover costs associated with executing bonds.
Justice and his businesses have seen several legal setbacks in recent weeks.