Supreme Court sides with Oconee couple
“Elated” is the word to describe how an Oconee couple and their attorney feel about a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling in their favor. Attorney Larry Brandt says the court ruling, announced yesterday, awards his clients, Scott and Tammy Lawing, a second trial to try to prove their claim for further damages as the result of a workplace fire 11 years ago. The jury in the first trial, which ran several weeks toward the end of 2008, awarded the Lawings and their co-plaintiffs millions of dollars’ damages for the fire at a plant then run by the Engelhard company near Seneca. Scott Lawing worked there as a maintenance mechanic. The lawsuit that resulted involved the packaging and labeling of sodium bromate, a chemical, which contributed to the fire and the burns sustained by Scott Lawing and co-workers Keith Black and Curtis Martin. In the first trial, a verdict was returned against defendant U-S-A Univar. Summary judgment, however, was granted to co-defendants Trinity and Matrix. Brandt says the Supreme Court ruling means his clients can pursue damages against the companies Trinity and Matrix.