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Real Property – Tort Claims Act – Inverse Condemnation – Stormwater Act – Discretionary Immunity
The SCDOT is not liable for damages that occurred during or before the construction process and SCDOT and its employees’ actions are protected by discretionary immunity, but an issue of fact exists as to whether SCDOT’s conduct amounts to an affirmative, positive, aggressive act for the purposes of inverse condemnation. Finally, the Stormwater Management and […]
Real Property – Condominium Development – Common Area Removal
During a condominium development’s transition period, the developer retained the authority to remove unimproved common-area property from the property regime. None of the events triggering the end of the transition period had yet occurred when – six years into the development – the developer removed from the regime a 2.58-acre tract that had been designated, […]
Real Property – Mortgages – Foreclosure – Former FDIC Asset – Subject Matter Jurisdiction – FIRREA
The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) limits judicial review so as to enable the Federal Deposit Insurance Co. to act expeditiously to resolve and liquidate failed financial institutions. Even though the jurisdictional bar in 12 U.S.C. § 1821(d)(13)(D) is not limited to creditors, we believe it is limited to claims […]
Real Property – Slander of Title – Taxation – Tax Sale Irregularities – ‘Malice’
In failing to give notice of a tax sale to the record owner – even when his wife appeared in person and asked about any outstanding taxes – the defendant-county acted at least recklessly. However, the master-in-equity applied the wrong standard for “malice” in a slander-of-title case. The master found that malice requires an intent […]
Real Property – Public Trust – Beach Avulsion – Ownership – Standing
Plaintiffs – property owners, organizations of which they are members, and the City of Folly Beach – sufficiently alleged a claim that portions of beachfront lots in Folly Beach, which were replenished in 2018, are public trust property. We reverse the master-in-equity’s decision in favor of the defendant-owners/developers of the renourished “super-beachfront” lots. The law […]
Real Property – Easements – Abandoned Railroad – Reversion – Laches
After a railway was abandoned in 1980, the adjacent property owners waited 30 years to assert that the railroad’s easement reverted to them. Although the railroad had purported to transfer the easement land to defendants’ predecessors, and although defendants had made some improvements towards converting the land into a walking trail, since defendants failed to […]
Real Property – Easements – Scope of Permission – Adverse Possession
Plaintiff’s land lies next to that of a church, and the church granted him permission to use the church’s land to get from his house on the front part of his lot to his landscaping workshop on the rear of his lot. While plaintiff contends that his use of the church’s land exceeded the permission […]
Real Property – Mortgages – Foreclosure Sale – Law of the Case – Equities
In this mortgage foreclosure sale case, because the special referee determined there were alleged irregularities in the events preceding the sale, yet the respondent-Mortgagors did not present any evidence of irregularities with the sale proceeding itself, the special referee abused its discretion. We reverse the special referee’s order vacating the judicial sale. Mortgagors claim the […]
Real Property – Easements – Insufficient Evidence – Prescription, Deed or Dedication
Plaintiff’s use of a road across defendant’s property became adverse in 2009; before that, the evidence shows plaintiff’s use was permissive. And plaintiff’s evidence fails to show any mention of an easement in defendant’s chain of title or any public dedication by defendant or her predecessors in title. We reverse the master-in-equity’s finding of easements […]
Real Property – Municipal Annexation – Standing – Deed Description Overlap
Although there is a four-inch overlap in the deed descriptions of (1) a 26.6-acre tract that lies within the City of Charleston and (2) a one-acre tract owned and annexed by the City of North Charleston, since North Charleston annexed its one-acre tract pursuant to S.C. Code Ann. § 5-3-100, which allows annexations of property […]
Real Property – Dueling Municipal Annexations – Standing – Property Description – Technical Deficiency – Prior Jurisdiction Doctrine
Although the City of North Charleston’s description of the property it was annexing inadvertently included property that had already been annexed by the City of Charleston (which prior annexation was not reflected in county records), this was a technical deficiency that North Charleston could correct retroactively after Charleston tried to annex the same property. We […]
Real Property – Mortgages – Lien Priority – Refinance & Intervening Line of Credit – Replacement Mortgage Doctrine
Where Quicken Loans refinanced its own first-priority mortgage without discovering an intervening recorded line of credit, the line of credit has priority over the Quicken refinanced mortgage. We leave it to the General Assembly to decide whether to adopt the replacement mortgage doctrine. We affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision. The borrowers defaulted on their […]
Business Law
- Economy forces attorneys to get down to business
- Business Court judges trawl for customers
- Va. company's Web site did not subject business to personal jurisdiction in S.C., appeals panel rules
- Former running back from S.C. wins courtroom victory in contract dispute
- Contract – Government Contract – Qui Tam – False Claims Act
- Licenses & Permits – Beer & Wine Permit – Restrictive Covenant – Suitable Location
- Consumer Protection – FCRA – Auto Loan – Bank Accounting Errors
- Licenses & Permits – Veterinarian – Vaccine Maintenance
- Tort – Business Tort – Va. Computer Crimes Act – Trade Secrets
- Textile firm, railroad settle Graniteville train wreck lawsuit
- State regulators look at car dealer accused of lying to customers
- Subprime mortgage meltdown hits securities law
Commentary
- Virginia Tech student got due process in hearing
- High court justices cross the line of propriety
- High court’s term was rough on big business
- The flip side of generative AI in law and how to address it
- The fight for equal educational opportunity continues
- Letter From The Editor – Working from Home
- NLRB joins FTC in taking aim at non-competes
- Supreme Court leaves key internet protection untouched
- US Supreme Court bites back at parody’s use of the First Amendment
- My goal: Provide the information that you need now
- Case study: North Carolina courts provide guidance on scope, limitations of attorney-client privilege
- A Different Ode to Pro Bono Work
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