Lawyers for Senator Jim Justice and his family business organization are again asking a judge to halt a federal lawsuit over control of The Greenbrier Hotel, disputing whether the owners of Omni Hotels & Resorts actually have solid grounding for their claim on millions of dollars in debt.
“There is no emergency here,” attorneys for the Justices wrote in asking for the federal court case to be suspended.
The lawyers for the Justice family filed an amended motion to stay along with an accompanying memorandum on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
They were responding to filings on behalf of the newly formed White Sulphur Springs Holdings, which is owned by TRT Holdings, Omni’s parent company.
White Sulphur Springs Holdings bought nearly $300 million in first-lien debt on The Greenbrier and related properties from longtime lender Carter Bank & Trust, which has been in conflict with the Justices for years.
The holding company is asking for receivership for the hotel, contending the Justices have been diverting profits to other interests while building up deferred maintenance, putting the collateral at risk. White Sulphur Springs Holdings is also asking for a temporary injunction order that would push the Justices out of hotel control.
TRT Holdings is owned by Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, whose son Blake serves as the company’s president. Omni operates more than 50 luxury properties.
Justice and his family bought the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs out of bankruptcy in 2009.
The lawyers for the Justices contend that TRT’s White Sulphur Springs Holdings got The Greenbrier debt by using fraudulent and anticompetitive tactics.
“This action is part of an orchestrated scheme by Plaintiff White Sulphur Springs Holdings, LLC (“WSSH”) and its billionaire owners to seize control of The Greenbrier resort through unlawful means,” wrote the lawyers for the Justices.
The Justices have sued at a different level of the court system, in circuit court in Greenbrier County, to make that case.
So lawyers for the Justices are arguing in federal court that the Greenbrier Circuit case should proceed to an outcome to determine whether a federal lawsuit by TRT’s White Sulphur Springs Holdings is even valid.
“Whether WSSH has any right to enforce the loan agreements — and thus pursue this action at all — is being litigated in Greenbrier County Circuit Court. And if the state court concludes that the purported sale of the loans to WSSH must be rescinded, or that WSSH cannot otherwise enforce those loans, this action ends,” wrote the Justice lawyers.
The Justice lawyers contend that in September 2024, TRT executives including Blake Rowling visited The Greenbrier under roles characterized as consultants for a private equity firm. During that visit, they gained access to confidential proprietary information, including financial, marketing and reservation data, the Justices maintain.
The Justices contend the access was granted under a confidentiality agreement that specifically prohibited TRT from using the information for any purpose other than the contemplated transaction, forbidding them from acquiring any of the resort’s debt.
“For years, TRT and its billionaire owner, Robert Rowling, have wanted to get their hands on The Greenbrier. And in 2024, they saw their opportunity,” wrote the lawyers for the Justices.
In taking that opportunity, the Justice attorneys allege that TRT violated both the confidentiality agreement and a separate second-lien note that prohibited TRT from communicating with lenders about the Justices’ debt.
Despite the restrictions, the Justice lawyers wrote, TRT began secret negotiations with Carter Bank & Trust in January 2026 to purchase the resort’s loans.
This past March 25, Carter Bank sold the loans for $289.5 million to White Sulphur Springs Holdings, a shell company TRT had created only two weeks earlier.
White Sulphur Springs Holdings declared the Justices in default and filed for “emergency” receivership that same day, April 9.
The Justice lawyers maintain TRT has stiff-armed a proposed debt paydown of $341 million through an unnamed third-party lender.
“WSSH’s motivation is plain — to short-circuit the state proceedings regarding whether it validly owns the Loans by using a purported ’emergency’ as a basis to ask this Court to deploy extraordinary equitable remedies, seize The Greenbrier from the Justices, and prevent the Justices from fully using their funds and other property,” Justice lawyers wrote.
Although White Sulphur Springs Holdings has asked for a receiver to watch over the property and maintain its value, the Justices say that is inflicting ongoing damage to The Greenbrier’s value.
“Following TRT’s well-publicized default accusation, bookings have fallen,” wrote the lawyers for the Justices.
“The Justice Family has also struggled to attract corporate clients or secure large-scale events, a critical component of The Greenbrier’s revenue. Indeed, clients have already expressed hesitation about future bookings in light of the uncertainty that Defendants’ conduct has generated.”