South Carolina Lawyers Weekly articles from October 2004

South Carolina Lawyers Weekly archives from October 2004

S.C. Appeals Court reinstates verdict for nurse in wrongful termination lawsuit.
October 4, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The Appeals Court has reinstated a $32,000 jury verdict for an Aiken nurse who claimed that she was wrongfully terminated from her hospital job. In reversing a JNOV for the woman's former employer, Universal...

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: October 4, 2004.
October 4, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Breach - Summary Judgment - Form Order Where: (1) the appellant contracted to purchase the respondent's liquor business; (2) the respondent sought to recover the balance due...

Supreme Court rules resurfacing contractor may have to pay for flipped car.
October 4, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A woman whose car flipped after it dropped nearly a foot onto the shoulder of a recently repaved Georgetown County highway could get a jury trial on her claims against the resurfacing contractor, the Supreme Court...

Supreme Court rules assistant principal not immune from employee's sex harassment claim.
October 4, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom An Orangeburg County assistant principal could not invoke governmental immunity to shield himself from an employee's sexual harassment-based outrage claims, the Supreme Court has ruled. The reason: the assistant...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: October 4, 2004.
October 4, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Murder - Juvenile - Transfer to Circuit Court Where the appellant, the victim's 15-year-old daughter, was charged with murdering her mother in a juvenile proceeding in Family...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: October 4, 2004.
October 4, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Drug Investigation - Search - Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Where the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court, which held that the petitioner did not have a reasonable...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: October 4, 2004.
October 4, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Voting Rights Act - Vote Dilution - Redistricting Plan Where the plaintiffs cannot establish that black voters in the 4th congressional district in Virginia can form a...

S.C. Ethics Advisory Opinion 04-08: October 11, 2004.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Upon the request of a member of the South Carolina Bar, the Ethics Advisory Committee has rendered this opinion on the ethical propriety of the inquirer's contemplated conduct. This Committee has...

S.C. landowners fight historical district restrictions.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Some Horry County property owners are fighting restrictions on land use proposed by a county committee looking to preserve some of the area's history. Four buildings still standing from...

Commentary: Protecting your clients' intellectual property: A 'how-to' guide on technology escrow.
October 11, 2004... Byline: Richard Sheffield Currently, there are 23,000 intellectual property lawyers registered with Martindale-Hubbell in the United States. Attorneys specializing, or with an interest, in intellectual property law, business law, computer...

S.C. Appeals Court rules worker injured just prior to firing not entitled to comp.
October 11, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A Chesterfield County warehouse worker who injured his back soon before he was fired from his temp agency job was not entitled to comp benefits, the Appeals Court has ruled in an unpublished opinion. There was...

Plant brought to S.C. to control erosion takes over dunes and other plants.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff A seemingly harmless plant brought to South Carolina's coast in the 1990s to help control erosion has turned mean, overtaking dunes, squeezing out other plants and garnering a notorious nickname:...

A South Carolina textile plant buyer wins lawsuit over misrepresentations in sale.
October 11, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A York man has won a $10.1 million verdict in a lawsuit over negligent misrepresentations about utility costs at the textile plant he bought. The plaintiff claimed that the seller, Springs Industries, understated...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: October 11, 2004.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Banks and Banking Credit Lines - Wrongful Dishonor - Loan Agreement - Ambiguity Where the appellant grain company, who obtained two lines of credit from the respondent bank,...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: October 11, 2004.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Exonerated Defendant - Criminal Investigation - Unsealed Record The District Court did not err in unsealing police records of the criminal investigation that resulted in the...

South Carolina Workers' Compensation Case Summaries: October 11, 2004.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Compensation Knee Injury - Altered Gait Where the claimant, who fell 20 feet while loading a scaffold with bricks, contends the fall broke both bones on each side of his knee and...

S.C. attorney Pamela W. Blackshire begins practice with Clark & Stevens, PA.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Pamela W. Blackshire has begun practicing with the Hilton Head Island-based firm of Clark & Stevens, PA, where she will work in the family law and real estate law departments. Blackshire...

S.C. Lawyers In The News: October 11, 2004.
October 11, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Charleston attorney William C. Cleveland III, a principal in the law firm of Buist Moore Smythe McGee P.A., participated as a faculty member in the ninth American Board of Trial Advocates Masters...

S.C. Bar Ethics Advisory Committee barrs guardian ad litem from later representing family members.
October 11, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom An attorney who served as a guardian ad litem for a child in a prior custody battle would be disqualified from representing one of the parties in a second action, the State Bar Ethics Advisory Committee said in a...

USC law school honors S.C. lawyer Vickie Eslinger with Compleat Lawyer Platinum Award.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Nexsen Pruet attorney Victoria L. "Vickie" Eslinger has won the prestigious Compleat Lawyer Platinum Award from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Eslinger is a litigator who...

S.C. Appeals Court okays DUI license suspension despite lack of videotaping.
October 18, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A York County motorist who lost his license after he refused a breathalyzer test could not have the suspension overturned -- even though the arresting officer did not comply with a law that requires suspects to be...

Supreme Court rules attachment, not an injunction, was proper tool to secure judgment.
October 18, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The owners of a Mount Pleasant golf course who sued over contaminated irrigation lagoons could not get a preliminary injunction to prevent the defendant from moving its assets out of state, the Supreme Court ruled...

South Carolina Workers' Compensation Case Summaries: October 18, 2004.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Compensation Back Injury - Notice - Claim Denial Where the claimant, who has been employed by the defendant for 31 years, alleges she has suffered an injury to her back because...

Verdicts & Settlements October 18, 2004: S.C. personal injury suit reaches confidential settlement.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Minor client was a passenger in his parent's vehicle on Interstate 95 in South Carolina. A second vehicle passed client's vehicle at a high rate of speed and subsequently the operator of this...

Paralyzed passenger settles for $1.08M in dram shop case.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff A Charleston passenger who spent an evening barhopping with friends, then was rendered quadriplegic in a single-car accident, has settled his personal injury claims for $1.08 million. The...

S.C. Appeals Court upholds new trial in $30M defamation suit.
October 18, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The trial judge in a Lowcountry doctor's defamation and conversion suit properly set aside a $30.25 million verdict and granted a new trial for the defendants, the Appeals Court has ruled in an unpublished opinion....

Verdicts & Settlements October 18, 2004: S.C. bar pays $1.08M in drunk driving accident suit.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff and two friends drank at four bars one evening before being involved in single-car accident. Plaintiff had driven entire evening until leaving last bar, when one of the friends took...

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: October 18, 2004.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Crack Cocaine Distribution - Sufficiency of Indictment Where the appellant argues the Circuit Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to accept his guilty plea to distribution...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: October 18, 2004.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Appeals Automobile Accident - Timeliness - Motion For New Trial Where the jury returned a verdict against the appellant in the amount of $62,000 for damages a minor suffered in an...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: October 18, 2004.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Professional Responsibility Admitted Misconduct - Public Reprimand Where the respondent admitted misconduct for committing simple assault, we accept the agreement for discipline by...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: October 18, 2004.
October 18, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Equipment Dealership - Declaratory Judgment Where three retail dealers of large earth-moving motor graders sued Volvo, the graders' manufacturer, for termination of their dealer...

Charleston-based Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor branch office finds permanent home in Bluffton.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The Charleston-based law firm of Buist, Byars, Pearce & Taylor, LLC, will soon have a permanent address for its office serving the Bluffton/Hilton Head Island area. Crews have begun...

S.C. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations Divorce - Reimbursement Alimony - Annulment - Void Judgment Where the appellant husband, who married the respondent prior to being legally divorced from his former...

S.C. Supreme Court Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Fraudulent Inducement - HMO Services Agreement Where the appellant HMO, who entered into an administrative services agreement with the respondents, sued the respondents...

South Carolina State Bar launches free online legal research tool.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Last month, the South Carolina Bar joined 20 bar associations across the country providing members with free online legal research via the Casemaker Web library. Originally launched by the...

Nexsen Pruet attorneys to hold breakfast briefings on employment law.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The employment and labor attorneys of Nexsen Pruet, PLLC will present free breakfast briefings to employers in South and North Carolina to help them better understand and conduct workplace...

S.C. Administrative Law Judge Division Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Concealed Weapon Permit - Prior Conviction - Terroristic Threats Where the petitioner challenges the decision of the respondent South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to...

S.C. Court of Appeals Unpublished Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Default Judgment - Service of Process Where the respondent bank filed this action for collection of a consumer debt and the process server stated in his affidavit that the...

S.C. Appeals Court reverses directed verdict on liability in snowy wreck.
October 25, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom A stranded motorist who was injured after her car was struck by a tractor-trailer in the median of a snowy Lexington County highway was not entitled to a directed verdict on the trucker's liability, the Appeals Court...

S.C.-based law firm McAngus, Goudelock & Courie opens Greenville office.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff The Columbia-based law firm of McAngus Goudelock & Courie, LLC has announced the opening of an office in Greenville. McAngus Goudelock & Courie, a full-service law firm, has other offices in...

S.C. Appeals Court rules personal delivery of legal documents proper.
October 25, 2004... Byline: Michael Dayton Where a bank's process server attempted to deliver service nine times -- then tacked the legal documents to the front door when no one would answer, service was proper, the Appeals Court has held in an unpublished...

Supreme Court overturns handbook-based race discrimination case.
October 25, 2004... Byline: Gregory Froom The high court has overturned a $25,000 verdict for a York County women's shelter director who claimed that she was terminated -- in violation of her handbook contract -- because she is white. The shelter's...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Tort Sovereign Immunity - Suits in Admiralty Act - Jet Ski Accident Where three young women sued the federal government under the Suits in Admiralty Act, 46 U.S.C. App. Sect. 741 et...

South Carolina Workers' Compensation Case Summaries: October 25, 2004.
October 25, 2004... Byline: South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Compensation Multiple Injuries - Permanent Total Disability Where the claimant suffered numerous injuries when a large, boxed computer fell from a stack and struck her on the...