Where plaintiffs’ counsel were awarded over $10 million in attorneys’ fees for their role in settling a class action arising out of Lumber Liquidators’ sale of allegedly defective flooring products, objectors failed to show that the award was excessive and ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Plaintiffs’ class counsel awarded over $10 million in attorneys’ fees
Tort/Negligence – Drunk Driver’s Employer – Voluntary Undertaking – No Duty to Third Parties 
Even if (1) a drunk driver had consumed alcohol at work, (2) the defendant-employer knew she had done so, (3) the employer sent the intoxicated employee home, and (4) the employer refused a co-worker’s offer to drive the intoxicated employee ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Premises Liability – Equitable Indemnity – Trip & Fall – Fault 
For five years, neither a landowner nor its shopkeeper-tenant warned of or attempted to remedy a trip hazard that their own safety expert identified at trial. As such, the landowner and shopkeeper were not without fault, so they were not ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Truck Driver – Respondeat Superior Claim – Prior Drug Convictions 
A truck driver’s previous drug charges and convictions do not indicate that his employer showed a reckless disregard for the rights of the plaintiff-motorcyclist, because there was nothing about the charges and convictions that indicated an increased likelihood that the ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Netherlands agency immune from stolen artwork claim 
Where the plaintiff sued to recover paintings taken under duress by the Nazis following the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, the Ministry of Education, Culture & Science of the Netherlands was entitled to sovereign immunity under the Foreign ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Punitive Damage Cap – Not an Affirmative Defense – Syringe in Parking Lot – Offer of Judgment – Interest 
Where S.C. Code Ann. § 15-32-530(A) requires trial courts to reduce punitive damage awards in excess of “the greater of three times the amount of compensatory damages … or the sum of five hundred thousand dollars unless exempt under subsection ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Premises Liability – Child Molestation – Catholic Diocese – Licensee 
Based on allegations that he was sexually molested by defendant’s priests, plaintiff claims that defendant maintained conditions dangerous to children, an action sounding in premises liability. Since plaintiff was affiliated with defendant for religious purposes and entered its premises at ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Medical Malpractice – Anesthesiologist – Oxygen Saturation Levels – Evidence 
We improvidently granted a writ of certiorari to review the Court of Appeals’ decision (There was no dispute as to the existence of a doctor-patient relationship or that the patient suffered injury as a result of going into cardiac arrest ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Products Liability – Vaccine – Express Warranty – Marketing 
Plaintiff alleges that defendants marketed to both patients and medical providers that defendants’ cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, was “safe” and “effective” in preventing cancer but failed to “include the complete array of risks associated with Gardasil.” Plaintiff alleges defendants’ representations ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Defective Construction – Amalgamation – Damages Calculation 
Even though there was evidence of the intertwining of the businesses of the two members of a limited liability company, since the plaintiff-homeowners’ association (HOA) did not show bad faith, abuse, fraud, wrongdoing or injustice resulting from the blurring of ...
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