By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., is fighting a $29 million-plus federal court judgment against him.
Justice has appealed a Tennessee federal judge’s ruling that he owes a surety bond provider based in that state over $29 million comprised of unpaid debt and collateral obligations plus prejudgment interest dating back to July 2023 after Justice in 2018 and 2019, when he was governor, guaranteed to the bond provider in agreements that his coal companies would timely pay sums of $5 million and $20 million, respectively.
The ruling and Justice’s fight against it have come amid other mounting financial and legal liabilities enveloping him and his family business empire.
Counsel for Justice on Monday submitted a filing to a federal appeals court indicating Justice’s side plans to question whether the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee erred in ruling that a guaranty agreement doesn’t limit the amount of Justice’s liability for premium indebtedness, that Justice had waived his defenses to liability and that the term of an underlying agreement perpetuates until all obligations have been fully paid.
The filing was signed by David Pogue, attorney with Charleston-based Carey Douglas Kessler & Ruby PLLC and followed the case being docketed on appeal in the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Dec. 1.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. ruled in the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee that Justice owed the $29 million-plus in an Oct. 30 filing that followed an August trial on damages the court awarded to the surety bond provider, Lexon Insurance Company, in December 2024. Lexon sued Justice alone in July 2023, making a breach of contract claim it said resulted from Justice’s obligations being triggered by his coal companies defaulting on payment obligations they incurred after Lexon issued surety bonds.
Read the rest of the story at the Charleston Gazette-Mail