In dueling court filings the Rowling and Justice families are at loggerheads. At stake is control of the Greenbrier Resort.

Robert Rowling and his son Blake flew to Greenbrier County, West Virginia in early April to meet with the state’s former governor, now U.S. Senator, Jim Justice at the Greenbrier Resort, which Justice has owned since 2009.

Just a week earlier, the Rowlings’ TRT Holdings had paid Greenbrier’s lender Carter Bank $289 million for the first lien debt on the historic resort.

Blake says he and dad Robert went to the resort hoping to negotiate a smooth transition. But the meeting wasn’t smooth. “We went there in good faith to try to work with them. The threatening nature in which they handled the meeting was not in the spirit of partnership and did not encourage us to try to make a deal.”

Naturally they’re at odds over the value. Jim Justice thinks the Greenbrier is worth more than the $360 million that he and his family owe on the loans TRT purchased, which according to court documents all came due on April 15. The Rowlings think it’s worth less than that but that doesn’t really matter because they believe the value of the Justices' equity in the business has already evaporated given their chronic habit of missing payments due to Carter. Over the past two years Carter had entered 14 forbearance agreements, allowing Justice to keep extending. Until now.

“They’ve breached the forbearance agreement. We’ve taken action,” says Blake. The Rowlings sued April 9 in the U.S. District Court in the southern district of West Virginia in Beckley against Jim Justice, his wife and son and all the businesses........

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