CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. District Judge Irene Berger has given a company owned by Gov. Jim Justice a week to describe how it will pay a civil contempt sanction of $1.23 million.
Berger’s order, filed today, describes years of attempts to get Justice Energy Company to pay.
“To date, however, Justice Energy has made no payments with respect to a sanction entered more than three years ago,” Berger wrote.
The case first filed Nov. 6, 2013, was only for $148,496.14. James River Equipment alleged that Justice Energy failed to pay for parts, equipment and service.
But Justice Energy failed to pay and its representatives failed to appear at a series of hearings.
This was at a time when the company was still owned by the Russian Energy company Mechel OAO. Justice had sold to Mechel in May 2009 for $568 million and then bought it back in 2015 for $5 million.
As the struggle continued for James River to receive the judgment, the company in late 2015 filed a motion for contempt.
In a Jan. 5, 2016, order, the judge did grant the contempt motion and ordered Justice Energy to be fined $30,000 a day until it could demonstrate compliance.
By Feb. 26, 2016, as Justice was warming up for the Democratic primary race for governor, the situation had barely improved.
But the two parties had worked out a payment plan, and Berger agreed.
She ordered the judgment of $1,230,000, representing the total amount of the sanction from her earlier order.
Justice’s companies appealed the case, but on August 17, 2018, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Berger’s rulings.
This past Jan. 31, Berger granted a motion for federal prosecutors to intervene and conduct discovery of Justice Energy’s assets.
In a joint status update filed April 19, both parties indicated that process was concluding.
Noting the lack of payment so far, Berger ordered the parties to submit a proposal no later than June 6 “to inform the court as to the date by which the payment will be made in full or proposing a schedule of payments, to be completed no later than Jan. 1, 2020, for the court’s review.”
That will be a busy week for the governor’s lawyers.
June 5 is the next court date for the lawsuit over whether Justice violates the state Constitution by living in Lewisburg rather than at the seat of government.
That case is before Judge Charles King in Kanawha Circuit Court.