Press Releases
Nelson Mullins' Brown Wins Wal-Mart Appeal
Condensed from The State
COLUMBIA (March 8, 2011) -- The S.C. Supreme Court dismissed without explanation on Monday a case involving juror qualifications and Wal-Mart that it had heard arguments on just last month. Arguments were presented by Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough partner C. Mitchell Brown.
On Feb. 16, Columbia attorneys David Massey and Debra Tedeschi argued to the high court a lawyer who had previously represented Wal-Mart had been improperly seated on a jury that heard a Wal-Mart case in 2006. The case concerned the store’s liability in a situation in which a 46-year-old employee had molested a 10-year-old girl in the store. That lawyer also became foreman of the jury that eventually exonerated Wal-Mart of wrong-doing.
Arguing for Wal-Mart, Mr. Brown told the Supreme Court the trial judge in the case had properly exercised his discretion when he allowed the lawyer-juror to be seated.
Wal-Mart, with some 27,000 workers in South Carolina, is one of the state’s biggest private employers. The case involved the Wal-Mart on Forest Drive and turned on whether Wal-Mart had done proper due diligence when it hired the known sex offender. The original case was tried before a Richland County jury in 2006 by Nelson Mullins partner Steve Morrison.
