South Carolina Lawyers Weekly
In separate instances, defendant met a young woman (the victim and the second victim) online, picked her up in his car to take her on a date, quickly became aggressive, forcing her to perform oral sex on him in the ...
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Criminal Practice – Evidence – Prior Bad Acts – Internet Date Rape
Criminal Practice – Constitutional – Brady Violation – First Impression – NCIC Search – Evidence – Prior Bad Acts 
Under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), the state should have provided defendant information that could have been obtained through a NCIC search. The state failed to discover its witness’s criminal record because it misspelled her name in its ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Evidence – Prior Bad Acts – Propensity – Wallace Overruled – CSC with a Minor
Given the dissimilarities between defendant’s alleged abuse of his daughters and that of his stepdaughter years earlier, the stepdaughter’s testimony was improperly admitted to show defendant’s propensity to engage in criminal behavior. We reverse defendant’s convictions for two counts of ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Slip & Fall – Indemnity – Settlement
Even though the plaintiff-customer, who slipped and fell on an allegedly over-waxed floor in a Marshalls store, has settled with the defendant-store and the defendant-cleaning subcontractor, there remain genuine issues of fact as to whether the cleaning subcontractor must indemnify ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Pharmaceutical Products Liability – Learned Intermediary Doctrine – Patient Statement – First Impression
The plaintiff-patient says, if defendants had revealed that their drug—used for treating bipolar disorder—caused gynecomastia (enlarged breasts) in males, his doctor would have disclosed this risk to plaintiff, and his guardian would have made a different medical decision. There is ...
Read More »Taxation – Sales Tax – Retailer – Club Membership Fee – Tangible Personal Property Sales
“A sales tax, equal to five percent of the gross proceeds of sales, is imposed upon every person engaged or continuing within this State in the business of selling tangible personal property at retail.” S.C. Code Ann. § 12-36-910(A) (2014). ...
Read More »Workers’ Compensation – Credibility – Objective Medical Evidence – Hearing Loss
Where there was objective medical evidence that an on-the-job injury left petitioner with severe to profound hearing loss, petitioner’s lack of credibility was not a reasonable and meaningful basis upon which to deny workers’ compensation benefits. We affirm the Court ...
Read More »Arbitration – Private arbitration panel fits definition of ‘tribunal’
In an issue of first impression, the court joined the Sixth Circuit in holding a private arbitral panel is a “tribunal” under 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a), which allows a district court to order testimony or documents for use in the ...
Read More »Criminal – Sex offender law survives dual challenges
A convicted sex offender who was indicted for failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA, had his indictment reinstated because his non-delegation argument has been rejected by the Supreme Court and his ex post ...
Read More »Criminal – Guilty verdict vacated because of possible juror bias
Where a juror reported possible intimidation, including being photographed by family members or friends of the defendants, it was reversible error for the district court to not question the jurors directly and to only focus on whether there were photographs ...
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