Greenbrier Hotel owners consisting of Senator Jim Justice and his family are asking a federal judge to halt a move to transfer responsibility of the resort property to a receiver.
The Greenbrier ownership group filed the motion for stay this morning in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The case has been assigned to Judge Frank Volk.
“The case before this Court, meanwhile, is nothing more than a sham brought by a competing hotel operator trying to snatch away ownership of The Greenbrier,” wrote an attorney for the Justice family ownership group.
Following a nearly $300 million purchase of the first-lien debt on The Greenbrier and associated properties, an affiliate of the Omni Hotels & Resorts chain moved last week to have a federal judge place the property into receivership, essentially appointing a third-party caretaker.
Representatives of the national company made the filing on an emergency basis, saying it’s urgent to protect the Greenbrier property from the Justices’ business practices.
The Justice family filed a lawsuit of its own in Greenbrier County, where the resort is located, claiming that White Sulphur Springs Holdings, the Omni affiliate, obtained the rights to the loan materials by dubious means.
Now the Justices have made a move in federal court, both reflecting the claims in their local lawsuit and advancing the position with additional information.
The latest Justice filing by Charleston attorney Steve Ruby contends that the acquisition of outstanding loans by Texas-based TRT Holdings, the parent company of Omni and White Sulphur Springs Holdings, was fraudulent and violated a non-disclosure and standstill agreement intended to protect confidential business data.
The Justices assert that TRT and longtime lender Carter Bank & Trust conspired to bypass existing payoff agreements through deceptive practices to facilitate a hostile takeover.
So the Justices are requesting a halt of federal proceedings until the court in Greenbrier County determines if the loan purchase was legally valid.
The latest filing includes an affidavit by the senator’s son, businessman Jay Justice, maintaining that an officer of an investment firm that helped broker the deal admitted that TRT, a representative from Carter Bank, and others met in late January 2026 to negotiate TRT’s purchase of the Greenbrier’s loans.
The investment firm officer is not named and is described as a source in the court filing.
Moreover, the Justices claim that the property at the heart of the dispute is significantly oversecured, with collateral values of more than a billion dollars, making a receivership unnecessary.
Justice and his family bought the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs out of bankruptcy in 2009.
Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Va., was the major lender, and financial conflict between the bank and the Justice family over and over during the past decade. Carter regularly reported that the loans were considered “nonaccrual status,” drawing no interest payments and that the debt had become an anvil.
White Sulphur Springs Holdings under the authority of TRT Holdings, which owned and operated by Dallas billionaire Robert Rowling and his son Blake, bought the Greenbrier debt late last month.
TRT’s best known asset is the luxury hotel group Omni, which operates more than 50 unique hotels and resorts across North America, known for authentic local experiences, personalized service and a distinct loyalty program.
Lawyers for White Sulphur Springs Holdings are accusing the Justice ownership group of defaulting on multiple agreements and diverting resort revenue to other businesses while failing to pay millions in taxes.
If the judge approves, the receiver would be authorized to exclude the Justice family and their agents from possessing or operating the resort.
Receivership is a court-ordered remedy where a neutral third party is appointed to manage, protect or liquidate assets during litigation or insolvency.
“The track record of these Defendants more than justifies this request,” wrote lawyers for White Sulphur Springs Holdings in the initial federal court filing.