Insurer Sues West Virginia Gov.’s Company for Failure to Pay Deductibles

An insurance company alleges in a federal lawsuit that a company run by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his adult children owes $166,000 for workers’ compensation and employers’ liability coverage claims.

Starr Indemnity & Liability Company said in the suit filed Tuesday that Justice Family Group LLC failed and refused to pay deductibles for policies that covered its liabilities between June 2018 and June 2020, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

The lawsuit says the compensation and liability policies have per accident deductibles of $1 million when an injury happens unintentionally and per employee deductibles of $1 million when an injury occurs due to disease, according to the newspaper.

Justice Family Group falls within the sector of company and enterprise management, according to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office. The suit lists Gov. Justice, his son James C. Justice III and his daughter Jillean L. Justice as the company’s members.

The secretary of state’s office says the governor’s children manage the company. Justice said he would put his children in charge of its operations when he became governor in 2017, the Gazette-Mail reports.

Justice’s office couldn’t be reached for comment.

This lawsuit isn’t the only one that’s been filed against businesses operated by the Justice family recently. Four retired miners and the United Mine Workers of America said in an April court filing that its coal companies were failing to cover prescription drugs for retired workers despite agreeing to do so, according to the newspaper.

A few weeks before that, a federal judge in Delaware ruled that Justice and a family-owned company had to pay $6.8 million for breaching a contract with a coal exporter.