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Hedgepath v. American Telephone and Telegraph Company12/10/2001
ense. The motions were opposed by the Banyard plaintiffs.
After a hearing, the trial court judge issued an order granting the summary judgment motions of Nassau and Gaston Copper. The court found the Banyard plaintiffs were on notice that a claim against Nassau either did exist or might have existed before September 1987. The court's order states, in part, as follows:
The record reflects that Plaintiffs were aware of facts and circumstances more than six years before they commenced suit that a claim for property damage might exist. Many of the Plaintiffs were noticing problems about the plant by the late 1970s à. By the mid-1980s, there was widespread concern over the potential harm the Nassau facility's operation was or might be causing to residents in the area. There were community forums, town meetings, government involvement, local political debates, door-to-door communications, media coverage, grassroots organization initiated by local citizens groups, and lawsuits brought by hundreds of residents, such as the Baughman litigation.
The record reflects that the Baughman plaintiffs, who sued in 1985, were friends, neighbors, and, in many instances, relatives of Plaintiffs in the present action à. Many of the current Plaintiffs worked at the facility or had family members who did. Plaintiffs do not dispute that they were on notice of community concerns and allegations that the plant was the alleged source of personal injury and property damage in the surrounding area.
....
When Plaintiffs sought to intervene in Baughman, each Plaintiff filed in support of his or her Motion an affidavit. (footnote omitted). These affidavits affirm that Plaintiffs knew as early as 1985 of the alleged problems concerning the Nassau facility and felt that they had claims arising out of Nassau's operation of the facility for injuries to their person and property. This conclusion is supported by Plaintiffs' admissions that they assumed they were parties in Baughman, that their interests (i.e. injuries) were protected in Baughman, and that they did nothing to pursue those claims until they read about the Baughman settlement in The State in August 1993.
....
Plaintiffs' [discovery] admissions confirm they knew or should have known of facts sufficient to trigger the running of the statute [of limitations]. Plaintiffs admitted in their discovery responses that they observed emissions from the plant prior to 1987, that they became aware of community concern, discussions, and reaction to the Nassau facility prior to 1987, that they participated in such meetings and discussions prior to 1987, that they believed their injuries to their persons or property occurred prior to 1987, and that they were aware of the Baughman litigation prior to 1987 and felt their interests were protected during that litigation.... Plaintiffs have not disputed these findings.
The trial court also concluded there was no basis to apply the doctrine of equitable estoppel. The court found there were insufficient facts to support a claim that the statute of limitations should be tolled based upon the alleged "active concealment" of the Dames & Moore Report from the public. This was a private environmental report prepared for Gaston Copper in relation to the sale of the plant by Nassau to it. Gaston Copper later provided a copy of this report to the South Carolina Tax Commission in support of a challenge to the Commission's property assessment for the reclamation facility. Portions of this report were publicly released in 1994 after a Freedom of Information Act request led to a declaratory judgment action. See South Carolina Tax Comm'n v. Gaston Copper Recycling Cor
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