The Justice family filed a civil lawsuit in Greenbrier County Circuit Court late on a Sunday night in April at 11:12 p.m. You can infer something about their sense of urgency from the timing—after eleven at night on a weekend. TRT Holdings and its owner, Dallas billionaire Robert Rowling, were named in the lawsuit, which accused them of trying to take over The Greenbrier resort using what the family put simply as “unlawful and deceptive means.” The word “snatch” has special significance for a property as historically significant as The Greenbrier, a resort that has hosted every American president since Eisenhower and stands like a white-columned monument against the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia.
The Greenbrier is more than just a lodging facility. You get the impression that this location holds something truly irreplaceable in the tale of Appalachian identity and American hospitality as you travel the lengthy drive up to its recognizable white facade, past well-kept grounds and the kind of formal garden architecture that seems borrowed from another era. It was in bankruptcy when Jim Justice purchased it in 2009, saved about 2,000 jobs, and spent years getting it back to where it is now. The resort is politically and personally central to the Justice family’s entire public narrative, regardless of the legal and financial merits of the current dispute.
Contrary to what the recent wave of lawsuits suggests, the dispute has deeper roots. Since Worth Carter, the bank’s owner, passed away in 2017, the Justice family’s banking relationship with Carter Bank & Trust has been declining, according to their complaint. The family alleges that in the years after his passing, they made several sincere attempts to settle the resort’s debts, bringing commitment letters, proposals, and what they say were easily accessible funds, but they were rejected due to bad faith. Carter Bank has not publicly addressed those particular descriptions, so it’s possible that the account is more complicated than it seems. However, the complaint paints a picture of a lender that shifted from being a cooperative financial partner to an adversarial one.
Justice Family Greenbrier Lawsuit: A Historic Resort, a Broken Deal, and a Battle Over Who Really Owns West Virginia’s Crown Jewel
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Property | The Greenbrier Resort |
| Location | White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia |
| Resort History | Opened 1778; one of America’s oldest and most storied luxury resorts |
| Current Owner | Justice Family (owned since 2009) |
| Key Family Member | Senator Jim Justice (R-WV); former Governor of West Virginia |
| Original Lender | Carter Bank & Trust |
| Loan Amount Acquired | Approximately $289.5 million |
| Loan Acquirer | TRT Holdings / White Sulphur Springs Holdings LLC |
| TRT Holdings Owner | Robert Rowling (Dallas billionaire) |
| Alleged Shell Company | White Sulphur Springs Holdings LLC (created by TRT, per Justice family) |
| Lawsuit Filed | April 13, 2026, at 11:12 PM, Greenbrier County Circuit Court |
| Lawsuit Allegation | Unlawful and deceptive attempt to seize the resort |
| Competing Action | White Sulphur Springs Holdings filed federal motion for receivership |
| Verbal Agreement Date | April 6, 2026 (50-50 ownership stake agreed verbally) |
| Default Notice Issued | April 9, 2026 |
| Resort Employees at Risk | Approximately 2,000 jobs |
The September 2024 visit is what really sets the lawsuit apart. The complaint claims that TRT Holdings representatives showed up at The Greenbrier pretending to be advisors to a private equity firm that was purportedly considering a financing arrangement with the resort. They were given access to private financial and operational data in that role, which is the kind of in-depth internal information that any potential financing partner would logically need to examine. The information could only be used for the intended financing transaction, according to a clear agreement that accompanied that access. The Justice family claims that the entire visit was a ruse to obtain information about the resort they had been secretly attempting to purchase for years, and that TRT’s representatives had no real intention of pursuing the financing deal. According to the lawsuit, Robert Rowling subsequently admitted that TRT had been “secretly attempting to acquire The Greenbrier” long before that September visit.
If true, that accusation describes a planned, multi-year campaign to obtain a competitive advantage through deception rather than just a violation of a confidentiality agreement. The evidence and legal arguments that have just started to be tested will determine whether a court will ultimately view it that way. However, even as an accusation, it alters the tone of everything that came after.
The Justice family argues that White Sulphur Springs Holdings LLC is merely a shell company that Rowling established to hold the debt and use it as leverage to acquire the resort. On March 26, 2026, TRT Holdings effectively moved to purchase the Justice family’s debt by paying roughly $289.5 million to Carter Bank through this entity. Being the lender instead of a rival buyer gave TRT access to creditor rights that a straightforward cash offer would not have given it. It’s a strategy that has been applied to distressed asset situations in the past and isn’t inherently unlawful. The courts will be asked to decide whether the particular way it was carried out here crossed legal boundaries.
The most relatable part of the story is what transpired over the next two weeks. The Justice family claims that as soon as they found out about the loan transfer, they got in touch. Discussions took place. On April 6, the parties reportedly reached a verbal agreement that seemed to be a resolution at the time: TRT would forgive $200 million of the family’s debt in exchange for a 50/50 ownership stake in the resort, with TRT taking on operational management moving forward. The deadline for Senator Justice to put that agreement in writing was April 8.
It seems that something went wrong between the handshake and the paperwork, or he failed to do so in time, or the terms changed. By April 9, TRT had sent the Justice family a default notice, claiming that the family had violated the terms of the loan and that TRT could now use all of its creditor remedies, including seizing the resort. The Justice family maintains that they have always complied completely with the terms of their loan. Regardless of which side you believe to be more credible, the rapidity of that reversal—from a verbal partnership agreement on Monday to a default notice by Thursday—makes it difficult to take the entire series of events at face value.
A federal motion to put the Greenbrier’s Justice-owned business operations under receivership was separately filed by an affiliate of the hotel management company Omni, adding another level of complexity to the conflict that is currently taking place concurrently in federal proceedings and West Virginia state court. The way those parallel tracks will interact and which jurisdiction will ultimately have the greatest impact on the outcome are still unknown. With its sweeping lawns, underground Cold War bunker, and two thousand workers who come in every morning from the nearby mountains, The Greenbrier appears to be at the center of a battle that is progressing quickly and has serious repercussions for a community with few comparable economic anchors.
