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 – Premises Liability – Equitable Indemnity – Trip & Fall – Fault
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 ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Claim that contamination at Camp Lejeune caused a death is dismissed 
Where a widow alleged her husband’s death was caused by his exposure to contaminated water and environmental toxins while he was stationed at Camp Lejeune, her complaint was dismissed. The alleged exposure occurred in the course of the decedent’s day-to-day, ...
Read More »Tort/Negligence – Parent fails to show school board engaged in viewpoint bias 
Where a parent claimed the school board violated his First Amendment rights by restricting his speech at meetings, the board took the action because he had personally attacked individual board members. To the extent the speech of other parents was ...
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