As part of her realty business, defendant self-financed mortgages for some of her customers, including the Wagners. When the Wagners could not make the balloon payment required by defendant’s loan to them, plaintiff lent the Wagners the $210,000 balance, which ...
Read More »Contract – Statute of Frauds – Loan – Primary Use – Statute of Limitations
Administrative – Associational Standing – Environmental Permits – ‘Affected Person’ – Charleston Cruise Terminal 
As associations dedicated to protecting historic neighborhoods, whose members believe the ill effects they already suffer from Charleston’s cruise ship terminal will worsen if the terminal is expanded, petitioners have standing to seek a contested case hearing in the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Search & Seizure – Cell Phone – Found at Crime Scene – SIM Card Search 
At the scene of a shooting, law enforcement officers found three cell phones. They searched the phones’ SIM cards to identify their phone numbers, discovered that one of the phone numbers belonged to defendant, and then obtained a search ...
Read More »Criminal record shows actual knowledge of unlawful conduct 
Although the record did not support a finding defendant was willfully blind to the unlawfulness of his conduct, his convictions for conspiracy, use of a communication facility in the commission of a drug felony and possession were affirmed because ...
Read More »Criminal Sex offender’s sentence affirmed 
While there was no error in sentencing an individual to 276 months’ imprisonment and a term of lifetime supervised release after he pleaded guilty to knowingly traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, the ...
Read More »Workers’ Compensation – Death Benefits – ‘Dependent’ – Girlfriend – Legal Relationship or Affirmative Undertaking 
The decedent’s on again-off again relationship with the plaintiff-girlfriend did not qualify her as a “dependent” under the Workers’ Compensation Act since (1) there was neither a legal relationship nor an affirmative undertaking between them and (2) she cannot ...
Read More »Real Property – Deed Language – Ambiguity – Sullivan’s Island Accretion – Flora Growth 
Beach accretion on Sullivan’s Island has left petitioners’ formerly beachfront property separated from the ocean by land which is owned by the respondent-town pursuant to a 1991 deed. Petitioners point to language in the deed which they claim requires the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Out-of-Court Identification – Suggestive Procedure – Cumulative Evidence – DNA & Fingerprints – Search & Seizure 
After a rehearing, we dismiss – as improvidently granted – a writ of certiorari to review the Court of Appeals’ decision (Although the circuit court erred when it admitted out-of-court identifications of defendant based on a single photograph of ...
Read More »Criminal Practice Search & Seizure – Consensual Encounter – Terry Frisk 
In denying defendant’s motion to suppress, the trial court found: (1) law enforcement initiated a conversation with defendant; (2) defendant willingly stopped and spoke with law enforcement; (3) law enforcement notified defendant they were law enforcement; (4) law enforcement ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Class Action – Department of Revenue – Wage Garnishment – Agency Debt Collection 
S.C. Code Ann. § 12-60-80(C) of the Revenue Procedures Act plainly states that the Department of Revenue “may not be named or made a defendant in any … class action brought in this State.” We reject the circuit court’s ...
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