CHARLESTON — A Kanawha County judge is still considering a motion by attorneys for Gov. Jim Justice to dismiss a case asking the court to force him to live in Charleston, but granted a motion Wednesday to halt discovery of documents and evidence.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Charles King heard arguments for and against the motions presented by David Pogue and Mike Carey, representing Justice, and Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton, who filed the third case against Justice in December.

Sponaugle is seeking a writ of mandamus, a ruling from the court ordering Justice to abide by the constitutional provision requiring executive branch elected officials to live in the seat of government in Charleston. Justice lives in Lewisburg in Greenbrier County.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Sponaugle argued that it was too early to file motions to dismiss his petition and that discovery is key to determining how much time Justice spends in Charleston. Sponaugle is seeking pubic calendars and tax records to review whether Justice includes mileage for his drive from Lewisburg to Charleston.

“It’s a unique situation,” Sponaugle said after the hearing. “I don’t know if there’s been any time in the state’s history where we’ve had a governor who hasn’t resided at the seat of government.”

Sponaugle argued that the governor’s absence from Charleston has caused the neglect of the needs of the state, such as road repair, flood recovery and lack of leadership on public policy issues, such as education. Sponaugle also argued the recent rash of lawsuits against Justice’s companies, as well as the involvement of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice, have distracted Justice from doing the job he was elected to do.

“All of this is weighing on the state and taking up (Justice’s) time and he’s not putting the needs of the state forward,” Sponaugle said. “All this neglect is causing problems to the state of West Virginia.”

Carey, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia known for prosecuting the late governor Arch Moore, argued that Justice does meet the constitution’s residency requirement and that the court doesn’t have the legal authority to enforce how often a governor should be in Charleston at any given time.

“The governor must be left to his discretion to perform his duties and he has done so,” Carey said. “He travels throughout the state repeatedly in service of the people. The courts are not empowered to require him to be at a certain point at a certain day. That’s all this issue is today.”

“It’s a mandatory duty and it’s not being followed,” Sponaugle said during the hearing. “He doesn’t have to reside in the Governor’s Mansion. He can get a house or apartment on the East End of Charleston, West End, he can live in a van down by the Kanawha River for as I know. He has choices on where he can reside, but he has an obligation and duty to reside at the seat of government during his term.”

King seemed skeptical of Sponaugle’s arguments during Wednesday’s hearing.

“What difference does it make,” King said. “You contend that as long as he’s sleeping around in Charleston somewhere, he can go from hotel to hotel, one night at the Embassy and one night in the Marriott…if he don’t want to get up in the morning and go to the Capitol and go to meetings or whatever, he ain’t going to do it. Whether he sleeps here or not won’t make any difference.”

Carey said the governor is bodily present in Charleston frequently even though he doesn’t live in the Capitol City. Carey points to Justice’s activities calendar as proof, even though an Associated Press investigation of the governor’s schedule contradicts this.

“Just last week (Justice) was here for the education bill,” Carey said. “He is frequently here in the mansion conducting business…yes, he is here in Charleston frequently carrying out the duties, but he’s also in Wheeling. He’s also in Martinsburg. He’s also in Beckley. He travels through the state, but yes, he resides in Charleston to the extent that term is required by the constitution.”

This is the second time that Sponaugle, who brought suit against Justice as a private citizen, has been before King in Kanawha County. Sponaugle, an attorney from Franklin, filed his first residency lawsuit against Justice last June in Kanawha County Circuit Court, but King dismissed the case after the state was not given a 30-day notice before filing the petition.

Later, Sponaugle re-filed the case before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, which rejected the second petition in September. A third petition, after giving the state the proper 30-day notice, was filed two months later in December.

A decision on whether to dismiss the case will be decided at a later date. Once that is decided, the stay on discovery would be released.