South Carolina Lawyer Blog

Columbia police officer, David M. Dechane, has been named the South Carolina Bar’s Law Related Education Citizen of the Year. This award was created by the S.C. Bar to recognize people outside traditional legal and education fields who support the development of students into responsible citizens.

Officer Dechane has been a member of the Columbia Police Department for three years. He said working with the public and youth through his patrol duty has given him an appreciation for educating children about the law through positive experiences.

“Far too often, the only law-related education that young people come into contact with is through police intervention and the juvenile justice system,” he said.

Dechane became a regular volunteer at mock trial competitions sponsored by the bar after learning about the Law Related Education program.

“David has been an advocate to other police officers, recommending different programs provided by LRE for use by school resource officers and crime prevention officers,” said Cynthia Cothran, director of the Bar’s law-related education division. “He has exhibited a commitment to helping students gain a greater understanding of their role as citizens.”

The South Carolina Bar’s LRE Division has been a part of the S.C. Bar since 1976.

To discuss this event further, please contact a South Carolina Lawyer at Louthian Law Firm.

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According to the Associated Press, the following recalls have been announced:
Approximately 228,000 Ellemenno brand girls’ capri pants with snap roll cuffs which are distributed by Mervyns Company and imported by Azmat Group of Dhaka, Bangladesh have been recalled because the buttons inside the pants' waistbands can become detached and this poses a choking hazard to children. No injuries have been reported. Mervyns can be contacted by phone at 800-637-8967 or by visiting their website.

Approximately 1,500 Currey & Company Table Lamps which are distributed by Currey & Company have been recalled because the light sockets on the lamps have a defect, which poses an electrical shock and fire hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday. Currey & Company has received 6 reports of their lamps causing circuits to trip and then sparking or catching on fire. No property damage or injuries have been reported at this time. Details of the recall of these lamps can be found by visiting their website.

Details of both recalls can be found at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

If you or a loved one has suffered injuries due to a defective product, contact a South Carolina Product Liability Lawyer at Louthian Law Firm, P.A., immediately, even if only for an inquiry as to whether or not you may have a case.

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Federal food safety regulators reported on Tuesday that the level of contaminated animal feed which was consumed by hogs does not pose a risk to humans who eventually consume the meat, and have lifted a quarantine that kept 56,000 hogs from going to slaughter. The hogs, some from South Carolina farms, were being held in quarantine by the USDA while the sources and effects of feed that was tainted with melamine, a compound that is used to make plastics were traced.

Kenneth Petersen of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service stated, “That meat is safe for human consumption. Therefore, it’s no longer being held on those farms. Melamine does not accumulate in pork and is filtered out of the body by action of the kidneys.” According to the USDA and the FDA, melamine was added to wheat flour before it was imported from China. Both agencies are investigating the contamination in China. Chinese officials have arrested at least one processing plant manager.

The flour from China was mislabeled as wheat gluten and rice protein and then used in pet food. The presence of melamine was discovered in March after thousands of dogs and cats in the United States and Canada became ill or died. Surplus pet food also was sold as hog, chicken and fish feed, which caused concerns about melamine contaminating human food.

The FDA assistant commissioner of food protection said Tuesday that two commercial fisheries that raise fish for human consumption have used the tainted feed. Fish from those facilities, one in Hawaii, the other in Washington State, are being held from market.

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The 40-foot hand-cranked Confederate submarine, “The H.L. Hunley “sank the Union blockade ship,” Housatonic” by ramming it with a spar with a black powder charge, sinking the vessel on Feb. 17, 1864. The Confederate submarine also sank and was finally located in 1995. It was raised five years later and brought to a conservation lab at the old Charleston Naval Base in Charleston, South Carolina.

Senior U.S. District Judge Sol Blatt, Jr. has dismissed a counterclaim to a lawsuit relating to the discovery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship. Underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence claimed he suffered as much as $309 million in damages because the discovery was credited to author Clive Cussler.

A group headed by Cussler initially sued Spence six years ago. Cussler’s group claims that Spence's continuing claim he found the submarine injured the reputation of Cussler's National Underwater & Marine Agency.

The South Carolina Hunley Commission supports the Cussler group’s claim that they found the sub off the coast of Charleston 12 years ago. Spence counterclaimed in 2002 and asked the court to declare him the finder.

Judge Blatt dismissed the counterclaim this week saying the three-year statute of limitations on admiralty claims had expired. Lee Spence's attorney had argued the statute of limitations period started when the coordinates of the Hunley were published by the state in 2000. Judge Blatt ruled, however, that it started to run in 1995, the day Cussler and his team announced the discovery.

Continue reading "South Carolina Federal District Judge Dismisses Suit in Hunley Case" »

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On Wednesday, May 23 2007, State newspaper reporter, Rick Brundrett, reported that S.C. Court of Appeals Judge Donald Beatty (55) from Spartanburg, South Carolina became only the 3rd African-American in South Carolina history to join the state’s highest court.

The former state representative defeated two colleagues on the Court of Appeals — Chief Judge Kaye Hearn of Conway and Bruce Williams of Columbia — to win the seat of retiring S.C. Supreme Court Justice E.C. Burnett.

Judge Beatty is the first African-American to be elected to the five-member court since Ernest Finney Jr. retired in 2000 after six years as the state’s first black chief justice and a total of 15 years on the court.

The court’s first black member was Jonathan Jasper Wright, who served from 1870-77 during Reconstruction.

Judge Beatty said he starting thinking about the Supreme Court about six to eight months ago after being asked to run. Beatty, who served in the military and also on Spartanburg City Council in the late 1980s, was one of 7 children and said growing up in a large family helped him to “negotiate and compromise.

Continue reading "South Carolina Supreme Court Gets Third Black Justice in State’s History " »

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Nearly 6,000 workers will die on the job this year. Two million will more be seriously injured. No less than 50,000 will die due to exposure to toxic substances causing cancer, lung and heart ailments from these harmful work environments.

As a result of these injuries over $3 billion will be lost from health care expenses to lost production and wages as well as other costs to employers and workers.

ITT is trying to reduce the risk of worker injury to zero. The company, which has 44,000 employees, is getting close to that goal. Other employers should read about how ITT is achieving this goal and model their workplace safety policies and procedures after ITT.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act needs to be fixed. OSHA is run by political appointees of President Bush, many of whom are former executives of the same industries they are supposed to regulate. These same heads of the OSHA organizations have discontinued safety education and training programs and worked with Bush and Republican leaders in Congress to cut their own budgets by millions of dollars they have blocked, withdrawn or weakened dozens of safety rules and stopped the implementation of other safety rules and regulations which have been recommended by safety and health experts.

One proposed rule would have required employers to provide free protective equipment including goggles, hard hats and gloves for the thousands of low-wage workers who are unable to afford these simple safety items but the proposal was blocked by OSHA.

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State reporter, Aaron Gould Sheinen, reported on Monday, May 21, 2007 that the race for a seat on the state Supreme Court has become “bloody,” according to a state lawmaker.

South Carolina is one of the few states where lawmakers alone pick judges for family court, circuit court, Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court and judicial elections are almost always contentious.

“The process is flawed from the start,” Rep. Mitt Pitts, R-Laurens, said last week. “I’m seeing relationships eroded to the point that I believe it’s going to affect what the body does legislatively for the next few years. The floor is getting bloody.”

This year’s Supreme Court race is especially heated for several reasons:

Continue reading "Race for Position on South Carolina Supreme Court Heats Up" »

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Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post reported on Wednesday May 16 that federal court has ruled that a white teacher in a predominantly black school was subjected to a racially hostile work environment.

The case involved teacher Elizabeth Kandrac, who was verbally abused by black students at Brentwood Middle School in North Charleston, South Carolina. Despite Ms. Kandrac’s frequent complaints, school officials did nothing to stop the harassment. School official said the racially charged profanity was simply part of the students’ culture and that if Kandrac couldn’t handle cursing she was in the wrong school.

Kandrac finally filed a complaint with the EEOC and ultimately filed a lawsuit against the Charleston County School District. The case was tried and the jury found that the school was a racially hostile environment to teach in and that the school district retaliated against Kandrac for complaining about it.

U.S. District Judge David C. Norton recently affirmed the verdict after the defendants asked for a new trial.

The judge found, however, that the jury’s finding of $307,500 in damages for lost income and emotional distress was not supported by the evidence and a new trial would have to be held to determine the appropriate measure of damages. Kandrac and the school district end up settling the case for $200,000.

Continue reading "Hate Speech at South Carolina Middle School" »

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Los Angeles Times reporter, Don Lee, reported on Sunday, May 20, 2007 that Mission Foods Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc. are attempting to reject all ingredients that come from China. This is a result of fears which have been created about the safety of imported food ingredients after contaminated wheat products from China killed and sickened cats and dogs in the United States.

What Mission and Tyson want may be next to impossible. China has become the world’s leading supplier of many food flavorings, vitamins and preservatives. Some food additives are available in large quantities only from China.

China exported $2.5 billion of food ingredients to the United States and the rest of the world in 2006. It is now the predominant maker of vanilla flavoring, citric acid and varieties of Vitamin B such as thiamine, riboflavin and folic acid; nutrients which are commonly added to processed flour goods such as Mission tortillas and Tyson breaded chicken. China’s food safety record has been poor. In China, chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides are heavily used. Quality controls barely exist and whatever controls are in place are often eliminated through fraud and corruption.

Major U.S. food manufacturers don’t always know where all their ingredients come from.

Many packaged foods contain dozens of items from around the world, acquired through complex networks of traders and brokers before they reach manufacturing plants where companies exercise more quality control. Laszlo Somogyi, a food sciences authority in California, believes tainted food additives pose a relatively low risk to humans because such ingredients are used in tiny amounts in any particular product. Ingredients made in China are likely found in every aisle of American supermarkets. Of the 39 ingredients in a Hostess Twinkie, at least 6; such as Vitamin B compounds, the preservative sorbic acid and red and yellow colorings, are probably made in China, says Steve Ettlinger, author of the book “Twinkie, Deconstructed.”

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Evenflo Company Inc. cooperating with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced a recall last Friday of the Evenflo Embrace™ Infant Car Seat/Carriers. The recall affects about 450,000 infant car seats.
The manufacturer of the defective car seats is Evenflo Company Inc., of Vandalia, Ohio. The defective car seat has caused injuries to children.

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A Conway, South Carolina woman recently cut her mouth on something sharp in a hamburger she was eating at a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Cracker Barrel.
The prepared hamburger patties which are used at the restaurants with the same or similar product codes were immediately pulled from Cracker Barrel shelves according to Cracker Barrel spokeswoman, Julie Davis. Ms. Davis went on to say that the restaurant should begin serving hamburgers again soon.
All Cracker Barrel restaurants in the country had stopped serving a batch of hamburger patties from a Wichita, Kansas supplier after the lady in Myrtle Beach said that she cut her mouth on something sharp.
Irene Graham, 56, who told police that she had cut her mouth on something imbedded in the Cracker Barrel hamburger, was recovering at home. Ms. Graham’s report prompted investigations by the restaurant, Myrtle Beach police and Cargill’s Meat Businesses, which was the producer of the hamburger patties for Cracker Barrel.
After being rushed to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center Ms. Graham was bleeding from her mouth and complained that it felt like something was stuck in her throat. “I was in shock more than anything.” Ms. Graham said on Monday. The restaurant manager took the half eaten hamburger from Ms. Graham’s table and told police that he found a piece of razor blade in the middle of the hamburger patty. He then turned the hamburger over to investigators who found another piece of razor blade in the patty.
The manager immediately reported the incident to Cracker Barrel’s headquarters and Cracker Barrel put out an alert to more than 500 restaurants around the country not to serve any hamburger meat. Ms. Davis, the Cracker Barrel spokeswoman, said that the chain is still not going to serve meat from the same product code the hamburger Ms. Graham ate came from. “We are being, very, very conservative,” Ms. Davis said.
Mark Kline, the spokesman for Cargill’s, said that his company was also investigating the matter.
Myrtle Beach police said that Ms. Graham’s x-rays show that there was no damage to her esophagus and no foreign matter in her stomach. She appears to have some cuts inside her mouth but she is too shaken up about the matter to say much about it.
Ms. Graham is not sure if she will return to the restaurant but did state “I frequent the restaurant quite often, and I love it”.

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Washington Post writer, Rick Weiss, has reported that approximately 20 million chickens being raised for human consumption ate feed containing melamine and are being held to keep them from entering the food supply according to Agriculture Department officials.
The Agriculture Department called for this voluntary hold pending completion of a government risk analysis to determine whether or not the chickens are safe to eat.
Government officials previously found evidence that as many as 345 pigs and 3 million broiler chickens might have been sold for human food after eating contaminated feed.
Despite the frightening numbers, FDA officials have said that the health risks of eating meat from the animals fed the contaminated materials are very small.
The 20 million live chickens being held were raised for large brand name growers an FDA spokesman said. “These are names you would know.” The agency is not revealing the names at this time.
Since the chickens were being raised for well known brands that were being fed a high quality blend of feed this means that their food had a smaller percentage of pet food mixed in and therefore lower overall doses of melamine, the industrial chemical that was found in mixtures of Chinese wheat gluten and rice protein. These mixtures have been incorporated into more than 100 brands of pet food.
Thousands of pet deaths are currently being investigated for possible links to the contamination and 60 millions packages of pet food have been recalled since March. Initial tests have found no measurable traces of melamine in the chickens which are being held and the birds appear healthy.
The USDA, FDA and EPA are working on a joint risk assessment of eating the chickens. The assessment should be available soon.

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Chicago Tribune staff reporter Bruce Japsen reported that gifts which are showered on doctors by drug and medical device makers have become so pervasive that they are a standard part of virtually every United States physician’s practice.
“Despite self-policing initiatives launched by organized medical groups and the drug and device makers to curb the cozy relationship between physicians and industry, 94 percent or virtually all physicians have at least one type of relationship with the drug industry, according to a study which was scheduled to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.”
Drug marketing and conflict of interest between doctors and medical product companies have come under scrutiny because of their impact on cost and because of safety issues involving heavily promoted drugs. Eric Campbell, the studies lead researcher and co-author who is an associate professor of medicine at the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, says that “relationships with industry are a fundamental part of the way medicine is practiced today.” He went on to say that consumers have a reason to be concerned about what the study found.
The American Medical Association guidelines, which are voluntary, say that any gift to a physician should “primarily entail a benefit to patients and should not be of substantial value”. When physicians accept gifts they should be worth less than $100 and “benefit patients.” Studies suggest that many doctors do not always follow the AMA guidelines.

Continue reading " Free Drugs for Doctors from Drug Makers Can Lead to Harm for Patients" »

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Drug maker Purdue Pharmaceutical, L.P. has agreed to pay $19.5 million to South Carolina and 25 other states to settle a complaint concerning its promotion of the powerful pain killer OxyContin and failure to disclose risk of abuse with the drug.

The action by the drug maker comes in response to a complaint by several state attorney generals who discovered that the company had suggested that doctors prescribe OxyContin to patients every 8 hours instead of the 12 hours approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The settlement also required the pharmaceutical company to discontinue dispensation of the drug in any manner other than approved by the FDA. In a prepared statement the company responded to the settlement, "It has always been Purdue's written policy that promotion of its products must adhere to FDA-approved prescribing information for those products as well as applicable laws.” Additionally Purdue Pharma has agreed to discontinue the practice of paying the sales staff a bonus in direct correlation with the volume of OxyContin prescribed.

Over the years, OxyContin came to prominence in the news when the prescribed drug was discovered to be highly addictived. When the illegal use of the drug produced a heroin-like high, OxyContin was was noted by the Bush administration as one of the nation's most-abused prescription drugs in the war on drugs.

States that took part in the settlement were Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and t he District of Columbia.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper commented on the situation stating, “Drug makers need to give doctors and patients accurate information about their drugs or expect to face the consequences."

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This week the U.S. Supreme Court refused the request of South Carolina to argue ownership of over 400 letters from the Civil War, clearing the way for the surviving heir to send the letters to auction this summer. The letters had been in possession of the family of Thomas Willcox since 1865. At that time, Major General Evander McIver Law, great-great uncle of Mr. Willcox, amassed the letters during burning of Columbia which include correspondences from General Robert E. Lee as well as several Civil War figures of South Carolina.

Three years ago, Mr. Willcox had planned to sell the letters, worth an approximate $2.4 million when Attorney General Henry McMaster sued on behalf of the state to block the sale on the grounds that the letters are the property of the state. The letters were taken from Mr. Willcox and stored in a bank vault pending outcome of the trial. In October of 2006; a panel of judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond upheld the ruling of a lower court that stated Willcox owns the letters and could have them back.

Mr. Willcox decided to sell the letters three years ago when faced with foreclosure on his home and another property. Now more than ever the sale is a necessity, "Because the state tried to seize the documents, he had to file bankruptcy," Willcox's attorney, Kenneth Krawcheck said. "We're working under a bankruptcy court approved plan that calls for an auction once these sorts of issues have been resolved. It's time to go do that."

McMaster has held the belief that the letters are “priceless, historic items that need to be properly preserved and maintained.” The state has never made an offer to purchase the documents. The state has plans to appeal.

For more information on this subject matter, please contact a South Carolina attorney at Louthian Law Firm for a free consultation.

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A recent study conducted by Philip Peters Jr., of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, found that juries are more likely to side with doctors in medical malpractice cases.

The study shows that juries tend to be skeptical of people and their lawyers who sue their doctors and that most medical malpractice trials result in a verdict for the medical doctors.
Peters concluded that juries treat doctors favorably, "perhaps unfairly so," and are even more likely than fellow physicians to defer to a doctor's opinion and testimony.

Peters’ study found that most medical malpractice suits are decided in favor of the health care provider and that the cases that go to trial tend to be the weakest ones, since those with strong evidence usually settle before trial. In an examination of plaintiffs’ win rates in New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida and Michigan, Peters found that only 27% to 30% of the medical malpractice suits which are filed end in a plaintiff's verdict, which is the lowest success rate of any type of tort litigation.

This does not mean, however, that people who feel they are victims of medical malpractice should do nothing. Despite the less than encouraging percentages Mr. Peters found in his study, the lawyers at the Louthian Law Firm have been successful in utilizing experts to effectively evaluate medical malpractice claims and bring them to successful conclusion on behalf of their clients.

For more information on this subject matter, please contact a South Carolina medical malpractice attorney at Louthian Law Firm for a free consultation.

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A federal court jury awarded a female professor $500,000 in damages after she charged acts of sexual harassment were made by the president Voorhees College in 2002 and 2003. The jury concluded that college officials “acted with malice or with reckless indifference” toward her. A final judgment is expected soon.

Dr. Moreen B. Joseph brought the civil lawsuit against the college and its president Lee E. Monroe and Voorhees College, contending that Monroe had sexually harassed her and the college failed to react. Dr. Joseph stated in the lawsuit that for nearly two years underwent “lewd, gross and suggestive language of a sexual nature and unwanted touching” by Mr. Monroe, president of the South Carolina college. She contended that the constant rejection of advances by the president led to the “loss of her position” and income. The college maintains that Dr. Joseph did not follow its policies for reporting sexual misconduct and furthermore was not terminated but “voluntarily quit.” The college also maintains that Mr. Monroe did not take part in sexual harassment.

At the end of the four day trial, the jury found for the plaintiff on all but one of the charges and further concluded that the president had sexually harassed Dr. Joseph and provided a hostile environment in which to work. The jury also ruled that representatives of Voorhees College “acted with malice or reckless indifference to her federally protected rights.”

Don Fowler, Voorhees College Board of Trustees member and spokesperson, comment on the ruling, “The proceeding ... was disappointing but there are additional steps before the final determination is made in respect to this proceeding. We continue to have faith and confidence in Dr. Monroe, and I will not have any other comment until the court has concluded all of the steps in this process.”

Dr. Joseph was represented by Herbert W. Louthian, also commented on the ruling, “I feel that the jury was very conscientious in their approach to the case. They were attentive, they were diligent, they did their duty and, in so doing, they have helped us protect the lives of women in the workplace.”

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The Associated Press reported on Sunday, May 6, 2007 that a high school senior who was arrested for writing a violent essay for an English class may return to school and will be allowed to graduate with his class.

Allen Lee, who wrote the essay on April 23, 2007 at Cary-Grove High School in Chicago, was arrested the next day on two misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct. Lee, an honor student with a 4.2 grade point average, was readmitted following negotiations with school district officials. According to Mr. Lee’s attorney, Dane Loizzo, the meeting with the school board officials resulted in an agreement that Allen Lee was “not a threat and never was a threat and he should be treated as such”.

Loizzo contended that charges against Mr. Lee were the product of paranoia as a result of the massacre of 32 students at Virginia Tech.

Lee’s essay read in part: “ Blood, sex and booze. Drugs,drugs,drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s…t…a…b… puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did”.

Despite the graphic nature of Mr. Lee’s essay, his attorney said that the teacher had told students: “Be creative; there will be no judgment and no censorship.”

Continue reading "High School to Readmit Author of Disturbing Essay" »