South Carolina Supreme Court Decisions 2022
Date: November 2, 2022
Docket Number: 28121
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent Myra Windham was seriously injured while driving a rental car that was considered a temporary substitute vehicle under her State Farm policy. In this declaratory judgment action instituted by Petitioner State…
Date: October 12, 2022
Docket Number: 28120
Justia Opinion Summary: Angela Brewer was convicted of homicide by child abuse after her thirteen-month-old grandson died from drinking lemonade mixed with oxycodone. Brewer contended the court of appeals erred in upholding the trial court's…
Date: October 5, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-MO-009
Date: October 5, 2022
Docket Number: 28118
Justia Opinion Summary: Victim, who was fifteen at the time of trial, alleged she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by respondent Charles Rampey, her stepfather, when she was eleven and twelve years old. Victim testified that…
Date: September 28, 2022
Docket Number: 28117
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Michael Frasier was convicted of trafficking cocaine in excess of 100 grams after police discovered cocaine during a traffic stop for an inoperable brake light. The questions this appeal presented for the the…
Date: September 21, 2022
Docket Number: 28115
Justia Opinion Summary: Jimi Redman shot and killed Lynn Harrison with a rifle while both were in their vehicles at a stoplight. Immediately before the shooting, Redman, who was driving a Ford Escape, approached Harrison's GMC in the lane to…
Date: September 21, 2022
Docket Number: 28116
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner John McCarty was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Petitioner maintained he acted in defense of another and moved for immunity from criminal prosecution…
Date: September 14, 2022
Docket Number: 28110
Justia Opinion Summary: Books-A-Million was a retail bookstore operating thirteen locations throughout South Carolina. For $25 per year, Books-A-Million customers could become members in the "Millionaire's Club" to receive retail discounts. In…
Date: September 14, 2022
Docket Number: 28111
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit certified a question of law to the South Carolina Supreme Court. In June 2005, Poly-Med, Inc. (Poly-Med) entered into a Sale of Materials and License Agreement…
Date: September 14, 2022
Docket Number: 28112
Justia Opinion Summary: South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson retained Respondents Willoughby & Hoefer, P.A., and Davidson, Wren & DeMasters, P.A., (collectively, the Law Firms) to represent the State in litigation against the United…
Date: September 14, 2022
Docket Number: 28113
Justia Opinion Summary: Travis Green presented a facial challenge to South Carolina's civil asset forfeiture statutory scheme following law enforcement's seizure of cash and contraband during the execution of a search warrant. The circuit court…
Date: September 14, 2022
Docket Number: 28114
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from a construction defect suit brought by a number of homeowners (Petitioners) against their homebuilder and general contractor, Lennar Carolinas, LLC (Lennar). Lennar moved to compel arbitration, citing…
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: 28107
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent, magistrate judge of Greenwood County Walter Martin, and the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) entered into an Agreement for Discipline by Consent (Agreement) pursuant to Rule 21 of the Rules…
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: 28108
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Alicia Rudick (Wife) raised a single issue before the South Carolina Supreme Court: whether a former spouse who was both the primary wage earner and caretaker could be a "supported spouse" under South…
Date: August 31, 2022
Docket Number: 28109
Date: August 10, 2022
Docket Number: 28105
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States District Court for the District of South Carolina certified a question of law to the South Carolina Supreme Court. Sullivan Management, LLC operated restaurants in South Carolina and filed suit to…
Date: August 3, 2022
Docket Number: 28102
Justia Opinion Summary: The Callawassie Island Members Club, Inc. ("the Club"), brought separate actions against three couples—the Martins, the Freys, and the Quinns—following a dispute over membership dues. The circuit court granted the Club's…
Date: August 3, 2022
Docket Number: 28103
Justia Opinion Summary: Wife Olivia Seels Smalls died during the pendency of her divorce from Husband Joe Truman Smalls. The couple accumulated significant assets, including the marital home; eighteen rental properties; and multiple retirement,…
Date: June 29, 2022
Docket Number: 28100
Date: June 29, 2022
Docket Number: 28101
Justia Opinion Summary: Joseph Bowers was involved in a shootout in which multiple people fired their guns. Four people were shot, and two of them died. A jury convicted Bowers of voluntary manslaughter, assault and battery of a high and…
Date: June 15, 2022
Docket Number: 28099
Justia Opinion Summary: Central to this case was a dispute between two daughters and a stepdaughter of the testatrix, Jacquelin Stevenson, who died in 2007. She was survived by six children: four from her marriage to Thomas Stevenson, a son by…
Date: April 20, 2022
Docket Number: 28095
Justia Opinion Summary: A church entity became the legal or beneficial owner of certain real and personal property after The Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina (Disassociated Diocese) and thirty-six individual…
Date: April 13, 2022
Docket Number: 28093
Justia Opinion Summary: PCS Nitrogen sought insurance coverage for liability arising from contamination of a fertilizer manufacturing site in Charleston, South Carolina, claiming its right to coverage stemmed from an assignment of insurance…
Date: April 13, 2022
Docket Number: 28094
Justia Opinion Summary: Justin Jamal Warner was convicted by jury of murder, attempted armed robbery, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The court of appeals affirmed. The South Carolina Supreme Court granted…
Date: April 6, 2022
Docket Number: 28088
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from the armed robbery and shooting death of a convenience store clerk, James Mahoney, at Nikki's Speedy Mart in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, in the early morning hours of September 16, 1999.…
Date: April 6, 2022
Docket Number: 28089
Justia Opinion Summary: On January 2, 2015, James Daniels entered the Sunhouse convenience store at the intersection of Highway 905 and Red Bluff Road in Longs, South Carolina, on the pretense of buying a bottle of lemonade. James' actual…
Date: March 2, 2022
Docket Number: 28086
Justia Opinion Summary: The South Carolina Supreme Court granted review of a court of appeals' decision affirming a trial court's finding that Respondents Fred's, Inc. (Fred's) and Wildevco, LLC (Wildevco) were entitled to equitable…
Date: February 23, 2022
Docket Number: 28084
Justia Opinion Summary: Before the South Carolina Supreme Court in this appeal was the trial court's dismissal of respondent Jeanne Beverly's claims pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. Beverly brought…
Date: February 23, 2022
Docket Number: 28085
Justia Opinion Summary: Kenneth Taylor was charged with driving under the influence (DUI). The magistrate court dismissed the charge, finding the State failed to comply with subsection 56-5-2953(A)'s requirement that the DUI incident site video…
Date: January 26, 2022
Docket Number: 28080
Justia Opinion Summary: On the evening of May 21, 2014, Denise Garrison went to Target in Anderson, South Carolina with her eight-year-old daughter. Before entering the store, however, Denise retrieved her coupon book from her car, placed it on…
Date: January 5, 2022
Docket Number: 28078
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Reginald Swain (Grandfather) appealed the denial of a request to terminate a father's parental rights ("TPR") and to adopt the child. The family court determined Grandfather proved a statutory ground for TPR,…
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