Over $2M in Justice-controlled, Greenbrier-linked properties listed as tax-delinquent

The list was published as a legal advertisement Saturday by the Mountain Messenger, a Greenbrier Valley weekend news publication.

The list includes two Greenbrier Hotel Corp. properties with unpaid taxes amounting to more than $1.41 million, 65 Greenbrier Sporting Club properties with unpaid taxes of $244,399, 14 Greenbrier Legacy Cottage properties with unpaid taxes totaling $153,300 and a Greenbrier Medical Institute property with unpaid taxes of $14,497. The Greenbrier Sporting Club is a private equity club that offers memberships to those who buy real estate at The Greenbrier Resort.

Those four companies are among defendants also including Justice, his wife Cathy and son Jay in a federal court case in which an international hotel chain affiliate has asked the court to appoint a receiver to take over the Justices’ Greenbrier-related businesses as a measure toward satisfying their nine-figure debt bought by the affiliate.

Property taxes are a critical source of revenue for local tax bases, helping fund infrastructure, libraries, parks, public safety and schools.

Justice-controlled tax-delinquent properties have been included in public auctions held in McDowell, Raleigh and Wyoming counties as well.

White Sulphur Springs Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Dallas-based Omni Hotels & Resorts, has sought court approval of an order it has proposed to give the family and their Greenbrier firms three days to deliver all property to a receiver, including all keys to the estate, financial records, bank accounts, Greenbrier Resort employee roster and payroll information, and an equipment and inventory list.

Revealed on April 10, the receivership request from White Sulphur Springs Holdings follows it buying $289 million in loans, subsequently reduced to judgments, related to entities in which Justice had an interest, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in March from the seller of the loans, Carter Bankshares, Inc., parent company of Martinsville, Virginia-based Carter Bank.

The Greenbrier Clinic, a self-billed, all-inclusive medical services unit at the Justice family's Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, was hit with two federal class-action lawsuits in April and May in response to a letter to patients saying the establishment failed to meet federal mammography standards over a two-plus-year period, calling into question the validity of testing results delivered in that span.

Justice family business attorney Steve Ruby and spokespeople for The Greenbrier and Justice’s Senate office did not respond to requests for comment.

Justice pledged that he would put his children in charge of his family’s business operations upon becoming West Virginia’s governor in 2017. Justice has suggested in interviews and court proceedings after he became governor that he remains familiar with his coal companies’ operations.

Justice businesses' history of unpaid taxes 

The Justice family business empire has a history of unpaid taxes allowing properties to hit delinquent property lists that predates White Sulphur Springs Holdings’ receivership pursuit.

The family had 28 Greenbrier Legacy Cottage Development Company II Inc. and Greenbrier Golf & Tennis Corp. tax delinquencies for tax year 2024 that resulted in them advancing to state collections, although there have no bids on them since, according to West Virginia Auditor’s Office records.

Owners of delinquent property taxes may pay them off at any time before property tax sale.

The Auditor’s Office will assume oversight of the properties starting in November and hold an auction mid-next year of those still with unpaid taxes, according to the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Tax Office.

Before agreements ended them, public auctions of the Justice family’s Greenbrier Hotel had been scheduled for August and October in 2024 in response to a loan default.

Justice’s family said in October 2024 that all debts on the Greenbrier Resort had been satisfied with Beltway Capital, a Maryland-based loan buyer which was set to auction the properties later that month.

The auction planned for October 2024 was the second scheduled auction of the property. The first was averted on Aug. 22, 2024, when Justice’s family reached an agreement with Beltway Capital to stop the sale of the family’s Greenbrier assets, including the Greenbrier Hotel, according to a news release issued that day.

McCormick 101 LLC, the Maryland-based owner of the loan, had sued Justice, the Greenbrier Hotel Corp. and three other companies in July 2024 in New York trial court, saying the balance due under a $142 million loan the bank made to Justice was $40.2 million as of July 15, 2024, — 17 days past its maturity date.

W.Va. eyes Greenbrier receivership pursuit case intervention

The West Virginia Tax Division last month filed a motion to intervene in White Sulphur Springs Holdings’ case seeking a receivership takeover of the Greenbrier business portfolio.

The Tax Division filed an exhibit indicating the Justice family’s Greenbrier Hotel Corp. owes the state just over $3.98 million in sales and use tax and related interest and penalties, plus another roughly $455,000 in personal income tax and related interest and penalties.

The exhibit includes notices of 10 tax liens issued by the West Virginia Tax Division from December 2025 to April 2026 showing Greenbrier Hotel Corp. owed the combined $3.9 million-plus for not paying sales and use taxes and not deducting or withholding personal income tax from wages paid to pay the state.

The liens upon all Greenbrier Hotel Corp. property were for periods ranging from May 31 through Nov. 30, 2025, per the documents.

The Tax Division said that it wants to intervene in the case to protect its liens and “preserve their statutory priority.�

The agency’s filing aligns with White Sulphur Springs Holdings’ argument to the court that not appointing a receiver to allow a takeover of the Justice family’s Greenbrier-related assets risks tarnishing those assets due to what it argues has been irresponsible Justice family oversight of the resort properties.

White Sulphur Springs Holdings listed the sales and use tax liens cited by the West Virginia Tax Division in an amended complaint the company filed in the case on May 1. The company also reported over $3 million in property taxes owed by the Justice defendants, including 48 unpaid tickets across six Greenbrier-linked businesses.

Ruby, the Justice family business attorney, claimed through a public relations official in a May 20 statement The Greenbrier is “under an agreement with the state regarding its tax obligations� and “in full compliance with its obligations under that agreement[.]� Ruby added that The Greenbrier would “complete all the agreement’s requirements in short order.�

Neither Ruby nor the public relations official made the agreement available upon request.

The Tax Division denied a Gazette-Mail request under the Freedom of Information Act for any agreements between the agency, Greenbrier Hotel Corp. or any Justice family member, as well as any agreements pertaining to the resolution of tax liens filed by the agency against Greenbrier Hotel Corp.

The Tax Division cited West Virginia code that, in part, prohibits government employees from “disclos[ing] information concerning the personal affairs of any individual or the business of any single firm or corporation or disclos[ing] the amount of income, or any particulars set forth or disclosed in any report, declaration, or return required to be filed with the Tax Commissioner.�

The Justices in a Tuesday U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia filing asked the court to deny the Tax Division’s motion to intervene, arguing the agency had shown no reason it couldn’t protect its “asserted interests� through the usual procedural mechanisms of a receivership if a receiver is appointed.