Lawsuit arises from closing of Seneca funeral home

One state agency is at odds with another, in the aftermath of the closing last year of a Seneca funeral home.  Keowee Funeral Services closed after the death of its founder, Heyward Scott III.  The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs entered a lawsuit last week in the Common Pleas Court against the state Department of Revenue, Keowee Funeral Services, and the estate of Heyward Preston Scott III.  The Department of Consumer Affairs prays for the following relief:  requiring the Department of Revenue to release to the DCA the levy of funds from the bank accounts of the Keowee Funeral; and requiring the Department of Revenue to release any funds identified as pre-need funeral contracts.  According to the Department of Consumer Affairs, its investigators took possession October 19 last year of files found at the funeral home.  The department followed that with a press release the following week announcing the funeral home had closed and the department pledge to work to get all pre-need funeral contracts transferred to a licensed pre-need funeral contractor provider.