Although his companies have been sued multiple times in recent years and he has been subjected to criticism for delinquent taxes, billionaire and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice stands behind his business practices.
Last month, The Greenbrier, which is owned by Justice, was named in a $420,000 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond.
According to the complaint, The Greenbrier entered into a contract with Cornerstone RPO in 2011 to provide staffing and recruiting services for the resort.
The initial agreement between the two parties was for the Cornerstone to provide services to The Greenbrier for one year, with an automatic renewal, which was set to expire in March 2016.
“Cornerstone has submitted numerous monthly invoices for fees and direct expenses that have not been paid by Greenbrier,” the complaint said. “As of the date of this suit, Greenbrier has failed — and refuses — to pay Cornerstone ... $422,837.”
Late last week, a notice of voluntary dismissal was filed by Chandra Lantz and Franklin Cragle III, attorneys from Hirschler Fleischer, a Richmond-based law firm hired by Cornerstone.
“Cornerstone RPO and The Greenbrier have had a mutually beneficial partnership since 2011,” Rodney Ashby, managing principal at Cornerstone, said in a statement sent to the Gazette-Mail on Tuesday. “At this point the matter has been amicably resolved.”
The lawsuit, which was filed on Oct. 14, is the latest in which The Greenbrier was named.
In 2011, Delta Air Lines sought $4 million after the resort had guaranteed a minimum amount of money in return for providing flights to the local airport.
In 2010, the resort was also sued by two landscaping companies who were seeking $1.4 million in damages for work they performed prior to The Greenbrier’s first PGA tour event.
Beyond The Greenbrier lawsuits, other Justice-owned companies have also been sued, with some coming as recently as this year.
In May, Beckley-based Tams Management Inc. and Southern Coal Corporation, which are both owned by Justice, were sued in federal court by Thomas Lampert.
Lampert alleged that Justice’s companies did not pay Lampert’s trust $4 per ton for the first 500,000 tons of coal mined.
Attorney Brian Glasser, who was representing Lampert, previously told the Daily Mail the lawsuit is similar to another lawsuit that came in 2013, when Beckley-based Phillips Machine Services sued seven Justice-owned companies, including Southern Coal, for $1.1 million in unpaid invoices.
“There is a cottage industry in West Virginia in suing Justice-related industries,” Glasser said in May.
In June 2013, the Associated Press reported that Justice faced at least nine lawsuits since the beginning of 2012.
Critics of Justice say the lawsuits indicate that he has to be sued in order get him to pay his bills.
But in a Tuesday interview with the Gazette-Mail, Justice rebuked those claims, saying, “They’re being really, really, really unfair. We absolutely do not run our business in that format in any way.”
Justice acknowledged that he became aware of the latest lawsuit against him sometime last week.
In addition to the lawsuits against him, Justice has also received criticism for being delinquent on his taxes.
Last month, a Lexington Herald-Leader article noted that Justice owed $3.5 million in delinquent property taxes in Eastern Kentucky.
Beyond the Bluegrass State, Justice also had delinquent taxes in West Virginia. Just days after the Lexington Herald-Leader story, the Gazette-Mail discovered Justice had recently begun paying off his delinquent taxes in McDowell County.
More recently, two Justice-owned companies — James C. Justice Co. and Bellwood Corporation — paid off more than $100,000 in delinquent property taxes in Monroe County.
The delinquent taxes were published in late September in the Monroe Watchman, a weekly publication in the county.
“It looks like it’s only been a couple of pieces of property that wasn’t taken care of in the regular time,” Monroe County Sheriff Mike Gravely told the Gazette-Mail on Tuesday. “It’s not a huge issue here. It’s happened a couple of times, but could I say it’s a common occurrence? No, I couldn’t.”
Moving beyond the Cornerstone lawsuit, Justice said it is easy to focus on the numerous lawsuits, delinquent taxes and fines he has faced, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of who he is.
Using an analogy, Justice explained, “Most people change their socks probably a couple times a day, maybe once a day. I’ve got to change (mine) 500 times a day. The likelihood of me putting one pair of socks on where one is green and one is blue during the course of the day is doggone high.”
Admitting that he will make mistakes, Justice concluded, “If we get behind or there’s something that’s not paid — it always gets paid.”
David Gutman contributed reporting to this story.
Reach Joel Ebert at 304-348-4843, joel.ebert@dailymailwv.com, or follow @joelebert29 on Twitter.