South Carolina Supreme Court Decisions 2020
Date: December 16, 2020
Docket Number: 28004
Justia Opinion Summary: Jose Reyes Reyes was convicted by a jury of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. The court of appeals affirmed the conviction. The South Carolina Supreme Court granted Reyes's petition for a writ of…
Date: December 9, 2020
Docket Number: 28003
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit certified a question of law to the South Carolina Supreme Court. John Harley Wickersham Jr. was seriously injured in an automobile accident. After months of…
Date: November 2, 2020
Docket Number: 2020-MO-012
Date: October 7, 2020
Docket Number: 28000
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue presented in this declaratory action before the South Carolina Supreme Court in its original jurisdiction was a challenge to the constitutionality of Governor Henry McMaster's allocation of $32 million in…
Date: September 30, 2020
Docket Number: 27997
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners' real property was sold at a delinquent tax sale. They filed an action in circuit court to challenge the sale, and all parties consented to have the case referred to a special referee for trial. Petitioners…
Date: September 16, 2020
Docket Number: 27995
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose from Beaufort County, South Carolina's refusal to issue Grays Hill Baptist Church a construction permit to build a fellowship hall adjacent to its existing sanctuary. The court of appeals reversed the…
Date: September 9, 2020
Docket Number: 27993
Justia Opinion Summary: William Crenshaw, a tenured professor of English at Erskine College, filed suit claiming he was wrongfully fired. A jury found in favor of Dr. Crenshaw and awarded him $600,000. However, after review of the College's…
Date: September 9, 2020
Docket Number: 27994
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was a Public Service Commission order setting rates an electric utility had to pay to solar and other qualifying renewable energy producers for electricity the utility will then sell to its…
Date: September 2, 2020
Docket Number: 27990
Justia Opinion Summary: The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspended Bradley Sanders' driver's license pursuant to South Carolina's implied consent statute after he refused to take a blood-alcohol test following his arrest…
Date: September 2, 2020
Docket Number: 27991
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Don Weaver brought a declaratory judgment action to challenge the constitutionality of S.C. Code Ann. section 6-11-271 (2004), which addressed the millage levied in certain special purpose districts. Appellant…
Date: September 2, 2020
Docket Number: 27992
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Sha'quille Washington was indicted for the murder of Herman Manigault and was convicted of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter. The court of appeals affirmed Petitioner's conviction. The…
Date: July 22, 2020
Docket Number: 27988
Justia Opinion Summary: The South Carolina Human Affairs Commission (the Commission) brought this action against respondents Zeyi Chen and Zhirong Yang, alleging they violated the South Carolina Fair Housing Law by discriminating against a…
Date: July 1, 2020
Docket Number: 27986
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Robin Herndon was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing her live-in boyfriend, Christopher Rowley, allegedly, in self defense. Petitioner was tried for murder; the case against…
Date: June 17, 2020
Docket Number: 27982
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent Tommie Rae Brown sought to establish she was the survivor of the late entertainer James Brown, who died in 2006. An issue arose in the context of Respondent's claims for an elective or omitted spouse's share…
Date: June 10, 2020
Docket Number: 27981
Justia Opinion Summary: John Massey, Jr. was indicted for first-degree burglary, grand larceny, and criminal conspiracy. The circuit court granted a defense motion to quash the indictment for first-degree burglary on the basis the premises…
Date: June 3, 2020
Docket Number: 27978
Justia Opinion Summary: Billy Phillips was convicted of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. At trial, a DNA analyst testified Phillips could not be excluded as a contributor to a mixture of DNA recovered…
Date: June 3, 2020
Docket Number: 27980
Justia Opinion Summary: The South Carolina Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision in Wilson v. Gandis, Op. No. 2018-UP-078 (S.C. Ct. App. filed Feb. 7, 2018). David Wilson, John Gandis, and Andrea…
Date: May 27, 2020
Docket Number: 27972
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. Plaintiff Johnny Thomerson alleged Defendants, the former owners of Lenco Marine (a…
Date: May 27, 2020
Docket Number: 27973
Date: May 27, 2020
Docket Number: 27974
Date: May 27, 2020
Docket Number: 27975
Justia Opinion Summary: "The right to vote is a cornerstone of our constitutional republic." The voting laws implicated in this case were South Carolina statutes governing absentee voting. Pursuant to subsection 7-15-320(A) of the South…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 27967
Justia Opinion Summary: Terry Williams shot and killed Larry Moore (victim) and shot and wounded Reva McFadden. Williams was indicted for murder, assault and batter of a high and aggravated nature, and possession of a weapon during the…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 27968
Justia Opinion Summary: The South Carolina Supreme Court granted Michael Landry's petition for a writ of certiorari to determine whether the court of appeals erred in affirming the family court's denial of his motion under Rule 60(a), SCRCP, to…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 27969
Justia Opinion Summary: George and Patricia Clark married in 1987 and filed for divorce twenty-five years later in 2012 after Husband discovered Wife had a multi-year affair with one of Husband's employees. In this cross-appeal concerning the…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 27970
Justia Opinion Summary: Several insurance companies (the Insurers) appealed the denial of their motions to intervene in a construction defect action between a property owners' association (the Association) and a number of construction…
Date: May 13, 2020
Docket Number: 27971
Justia Opinion Summary: Kathryn Key was convicted in summary court of driving under the influence (DUI). Her conviction was based upon the testing of her blood, which was drawn without a warrant while she was unconscious. The circuit court…
Date: May 6, 2020
Docket Number: 27963
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Wallace Perry was convicted on two counts of criminal sexual conduct (CSC) with a minor in the first degree and two counts of CSC with a minor in the second degree for sexually assaulting two of his biological…
Date: May 6, 2020
Docket Number: 27964
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Larry Durant was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) for sexually abusing a teenage girl in his church office where he served as the pastor. Durant contended the trial court improperly…
Date: May 6, 2020
Docket Number: 27966
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent Rick Quinn, Jr. was a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, representing constituents in Richland and Lexington counties from 1989-2004 and 2010-2017 and serving as House Majority…
Date: March 25, 2020
Docket Number: 27959
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Michael Simmons was convicted of six counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the second degree pursuant to section 16-15-405 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. Simmons contended this provision was…
Date: March 18, 2020
Docket Number: 27957
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the South Carolina Supreme Court's review centered on whether Respondent, the Murkin Group, LLC (Murkin), engaged in the unauthorized practice of law (UPL). In April 2017, the Wando…
Date: March 18, 2020
Docket Number: 27958
Justia Opinion Summary: In October 2013, a young woman (the victim) was shot by Petitioner Michael Smith in the Five Points area of Columbia, South Carolina. It was undisputed Smith did not intend to harm her. Rather, Smith claimed he was…
Date: March 11, 2020
Docket Number: 27951
Justia Opinion Summary: Danny Crane sought workers' compensation benefits for hearing loss and brain injuries he alleged he suffered in a work-related accident. The workers' compensation commission denied most of Crane's claims, finding he was…
Date: March 11, 2020
Docket Number: 27953
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners Phillip and Jeanne Ethier appealed a verdict in favor of Respondent Dr. Guy Bibeau, who misdiagnosed a popliteal aneurysm as a probable spider bite. During voir dire, the court asked prospective jurors…
Date: March 11, 2020
Docket Number: 27954
Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Prather was convicted of murder and strong arm robbery. The trial court sentenced Prather to concurrent prison terms of thirty years for murder and ten years for strong arm robbery. Prather appealed, and a divided…
Date: March 4, 2020
Docket Number: 27950
Justia Opinion Summary: In August 2013, Timothy York drowned when his boat capsized on a pond at Longlands Plantation in Greeleyville, South Carolina. The deceased's brother and personal representative of the estate filed a claim for death…
Date: February 19, 2020
Docket Number: 27947
Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned accreting land along the South Carolina coast that owned by the Town of Sullivan. Petitioners Nathan and Ettaleah Bluestein and Theodore and Karen Albenesius (collectively, Petitioners) bought…
Date: February 19, 2020
Docket Number: 27948
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Robert Moore was convicted by jury and sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment for the attempted murder of Travis Hall. Hall was shot in the head and left for dead in a vehicle in a Taco Bell parking lot…
Date: February 19, 2020
Docket Number: 27949
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, consisting of several citizens groups and neighborhood associations, sought a contested case hearing in the administrative law court (ALC) to challenge the propriety of state environmental authorizations…
Date: February 12, 2020
Docket Number: 27944
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondents, individually and as members of a putative class, brought a declaratory judgment action against the South Carolina Department of Revenue seeking refunds of amounts garnished from their wages by the Department…
Date: February 12, 2020
Docket Number: 27945
Justia Opinion Summary: Eric Spears was indicted for trafficking crack cocaine between ten and twenty-eight grams. Spears moved to suppress the evidence of the drugs seized from his person on the ground he was seized in violation of the Fourth…
Date: February 5, 2020
Docket Number: 27942
Justia Opinion Summary: In the course of a gun battle between mutual combatants, a bullet fired at Petitioner Aaron Young Jr. (Young Jr.) missed its intended mark and killed an unintended victim. Young Jr. and his father Aaron Young Sr. (Young…
Date: February 5, 2020
Docket Number: 27943
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Terry McCall was convicted of felony DUI. On appeal, he argued the warrantless collection of his blood and urine at the direction of law enforcement pursuant to Section 56-5-2946 of the South Carolina Code…
Date: January 29, 2020
Docket Number: 27939
Justia Opinion Summary: John Henry Dial Jr. was charged in magistrates court with three counts of assault and battery in the third degree arising from an incident in which two adults and one minor were sprayed with pepper spray. Dial appeared…
Date: January 29, 2020
Docket Number: 27940
Justia Opinion Summary: For years, the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services (DPPPS) improperly denied inmates parole based on an incorrect interpretation of the statute setting forth the number of votes required…
Date: January 29, 2020
Docket Number: 27941
Justia Opinion Summary: Kenneth and Angela Hensley filed suit against the South Carolina Department of Social Services on behalf of their adopted minor child BLH and a class of approximately 4000 similarly situated adopted children. The central…
Date: January 22, 2020
Docket Number: 27930
Justia Opinion Summary: Horry County, South Carolina filed an action in magistrates court to eject Skydive Myrtle Beach, Inc., from a hangar at the Grand Strand Airport in North Myrtle Beach. The magistrates court found Skydive did not have any…
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