A logging company in Allendale County won’t be able to settle a multi-million dollar lawsuit pending against it by filing a malpractice claim against its attorneys and assigning the proceeds to the man injured in a wreck involving one of ...

Tagged with: Certified Question Legal Malpractice

Machin v. Carus Corp. (Lawyers Weekly No. 002-080-15, 9 pp.) (Joseph Anderson Jr., J.) 3:12-cv-02675; D.S.C. Holding: Where plaintiff was injured at work by exposure to a third party’s chemicals, South Carolina law is unclear as to whether the third ...

Tagged with: Certified Question

Whitlock v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. Pursuant to a question certified to this court by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, we hold that where, as here, a title insurance contract does not clearly identify a date for measuring the diminution in value of the insured property or otherwise unambiguously provide for the method of valuation as a result of a title defect...

Tagged with: Certified Question Damages Real Property title insurance

Overruling 15-year-old precedent, the state Supreme Court has held that school administrators do not have the right to a hearing to contest reductions in pay or reassignments under the Teacher Employment and Dismissal Act. The justices made the ruling in an answer to a certified question from the U.S. District Court in a lawsuit brought by a former Fairfield County deputy superintendent for human resources. Attorney Carol B. Ervin (pictured) said the plaintiff made both federal due-process and state-law claims against the district, but the federal and state claims were bound together. "The issue of whether or not the plaintiff had any due-process rights turned on whether or not she had a property interest in her position and entitlements."

Tagged with: Certified Question Employment Law Labor & Employment