South Carolina Lawyers Weekly articles from December 2004

South Carolina Lawyers Weekly archives from December 2004

S.C. Legal Briefs: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorney Christopher T. Cunniffe recently opened Harbor City Real Estate Advisors, LLC, a real estate brokerage firm with offices in Mount Pleasant. The new company will exclusively represent...

S.C. Appeals Court upholds contempt order against wife who poisoned plants.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The Appeals Court has affirmed an order that held a Lancaster County woman in contempt for poisoning plants around her former marital home before turning it over to her ex-husband. In a Nov. 17 unpublished...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Employment Discrimination Equal Pay - 911 Call Center Although plaintiff female supervisors at a 911 emergency call center in Wicomico County, Md., contend they should receive the same...

S.C. Workers' Comp Commission rules board member qualifies as an employee and is covered by comp.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton An appeal filed last week in Circuit Court could clarify whether the trustee of a rural electric co-op qualified as an employee for purposes of workers' compensation benefits. Frederick D. Shuler, who serves on...

S.C. State Bar's Ethics Committee urges caution in office-splitting arrangement.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom An attorney could operate both a law practice and a real estate brokerage firm out of the same office -- but he had to be wary of the potential ethical pitfalls posed by the arrangement, the State Bar's Ethics...

S.C. Workers' Compensation Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Compensation Back Injury - Permanent Total Disability Where the claimant reported four accidents that occurred during his employment but only received some workers' compensation...

S.C. Attorney Steve A. Matthews joins Board of S.C. Independent Colleges and Universities.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorney Steve A. Matthews has been elected to the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities board of trustees. Matthews is the managing director of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. ...

S.C. law firm Rogers Townsend & Thomas receives Palmetto Patriot Award.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The South Carolina State Guard Foundation recently hosted a special ceremony to honor the law firm of Rogers Townsend & Thomas and shareholder Gene Rogers. Major General Stanhope Spears,...

S.C. Appeals Court ruling may prompt "cause of action" against assisted-living home.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom An Olanta assisted-living home may be liable for failing to notify a resident's family after he went missing from the facility, the Appeals Court has ruled in an unpublished opinion. That was true, the appellate...

S.C. Administrative Law Judge Division Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Family Independence Administrative Error Claim - Overpayment Where the appellant received benefits from the Family Independence program that she was ineligible to receive...

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Robbery - Prior Inconsistent Statement - Impeachment Where the appellant, who was convicted for murder in connection with a convenience store robbery involving other...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations Divorce - Personal Property Damage - Contempt Where the parties' settlement agreement provided that the parties promised not to "destroy or damage any real or personal...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: December 6, 2004.
December 6, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Possession of Crack Cocaine - Circumstantial Evidence Charge Where the petitioner, who was convicted of PWID crack, argues that the trial court should have given a fuller...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Criminal Domestic Violence - Police Testimony - Hearsay Where the appellant, who was convicted of criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, argues the trial...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Class Action - Tobacco Farmer Settlement Agreements -'Beginning Of Trial' Where a settlement agreement between tobacco farmers of their antitrust claims against the...

S.C. Lawyers In The News: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Greenville attorney Jennifer Spragins Barr has recently been elected to serve as president of the Young Lawyers Division of the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys' Association. Barr is a...

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Evidence of State Trooper's Death - Res Gestae Where the appellant argues evidence that he shot and killed a state trooper shortly before committing various other crimes should...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorney Disciplinary Matter Admitted Misconduct - Public Reprimand Where the respondent admitted misconduct for failing to timely communicate and act on behalf of a client, we accept the...

S.C. Workers' Compensation Case Summaries: December 13, 2004.
December 13, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Compensation Deceased Employee - Aliens - Death Benefits Where the claimant, whose parents are Greek and are not residents of the United States, sustained an admitted injury...

S.C. Comp Commission restores full death benefits to parents of foreign worker.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The parents of a Greek worker who was killed in an on-the-job accident in Orangeburg County could recover 100 percent of their son's comp benefits -- despite a statute that allows awards to aliens to be cut in half,...

S.C. Appeals Court rules railroad worker gets trial on FELA claim over wrench accident.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A Lowcountry railroad worker could go forward with his negligence suit against his employer after he was injured while manually tightening thousands of track bolts, the Appeals Court has ruled in a 2-1 opinion. ...

S.C. Appeals Court denies grandparents 'de facto' custody of children.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The grandparents of three Spartanburg County children were not awarded "de facto" custody -- even though the Family Court considered their role in caring for the children while their father worked a night job, the...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: December 20, 2004.
December 20, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Murder - PCR Application - Timeliness Where the petitioner alleged he did not file a timely PCR application because neither his trial nor his appellate attorneys informed him of...

Verdicts & Settlements December 20, 2004: S.C. store manager wins liability suit.
December 20, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff At date of injury on April 2, 1998, Plaintiff was a 34-year-old female manager of the Lillian Vernon store at Hilton Head Factory Stores II. After working at the store for eight months, Plaintiff...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: December 20, 2004.
December 20, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Littering - Hearsay Admission - Contemporaneous Objection Where the respondent, who was convicted in magistrate's court for littering, argued on appeal to the Circuit Court that...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: December 20, 2004.
December 20, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Prefiling Injunction - Pro Se Litigant A prefiling injunction against a pro se plaintiff who has made repeated frivolous filings in his employment discrimination matter is...

S.C.-based Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd attorney honored for lifetime achievement.
December 20, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A. attorney Eugene Noel "Nick" Zeigler Jr. was recently honored by the South Carolina Humanities Council for his decades of work as an author and historian. The...

S.C. Appeals Court rules patient time-barred in med-mal suit over severed ureter.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A patient who claimed that her ureter was negligently severed during an operation at a Spartanburg hospital was time-barred from pursuing her medical malpractice claim, the Court of Appeals has ruled in an unpublished...

S.C. Court awards $3.6M to store manager for premises liability claim.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The manager of a Bluffton outlet store has won a nearly $3.6 million verdict after she tripped and fell over a metal rod that stuck out more than five inches above the shopping center's sidewalk. The plaintiff...

S.C. Courts are gearing up for electronic service filing.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton The age of electronic filing is just around the corner for South Carolina lawyers as state and federal courts gear up to accept documents and allow service over the Internet. Simply put, "e-filing" is the process...

S.C.-based law firm Rogers Townsend & Thomas attorney receives civility award.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Jim Leventis, an attorney with Rogers Townsend & Thomas, PC, received the Matthew J. Perry Jr. Civility Award at the Richland County Bar Association's annual meeting earlier this month. The...

Supreme Court justices reject severely disabled child's 'wrongful life' claim.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A Marion County child whose brain development was severely limited by a naturally occurring birth defect could not bring a "wrongful life" action against the physician who provided prenatal care to his mother, the...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: December 27, 2004.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Burglary - Substantial Circumstantial Evidence - Directed Verdict Where the appellant argues the trial court erred in refusing to grant a directed verdict because the state...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: December 27, 2004.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Resentencing - Apprendi - Drug Quantity Three drug defendants who appeal their sentences imposed after a remand for resentencing on drug conspiracy charges have not demonstrated...

The Best Lawyers In America selects S.C. firm for inclusion in 2005-2006 inclusion.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Four Love, Thornton, Arnold & Thomason, PA attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2005-2006 edition of The Best Lawyers In America. The attorneys and the areas for which they were...

S.C. Appeals Court says comp rate should include claimant's recent pay raise.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A Department of Transportation employee's raise should have been considered when the compensation rate for her comp claim was set -- even though she got the raise less than two weeks before she was injured, the...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: December 27, 2004.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Witness Fee - Mileage - Deposition Attendance Where the petitioner, who sued the respondent bank for allegedly filing a negative credit report against him, notified the...

S.C. Appeals Court rules DUI breath test admissible despite incomplete SLED form.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton Even though a Florence police offer failed to circle the word "breath" on a standard SLED form before giving a sobriety test to a DUI suspect, the results were still admissible, the Appeals Court has ruled. The...

S.C. Appeals Court rules contractors not liable for woman's fall near worksite.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A woman who tripped in the dark parking lot of an Upstate hospital could not sue the construction companies that were working at the site, the Appeals Court has ruled. The plaintiff claimed that faulty lighting...

S.C. Supreme Court rules deposed party entitled to mileage and witness fee.
December 27, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton The plaintiff in a civil lawsuit was entitled to mileage and a $25 witness fee when the defendant scheduled him for a deposition, the Supreme Court has ruled. The Dec. 20 opinion reaffirms a 1970 case, Perry v....

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 27, 2004.
December 27, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Possession with Intent to Distribute - Intent - Directed Verdict Where the appellant, who was convicted for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and possession with...