Pawleys Island
Appeals Court criticizes town beach easements in ruling on legal fees
Pawleys Island Town Council last week reaffirmed its plans to condemn easements on three beachfront lots to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with a renourishment project.
The vote came days after a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals issued opinions in two previous condemnation attempts that were critical of the town’s past efforts to obtain the three easements.
“At the outset, the Town engaged in troubling conduct by seeking unreasonable easements exceeding the scope of those authorized by Town Council (or required by the Army Corps of Engineers),” Judge Stephanie McDonald wrote.
Judges Aphrodite Konduros and Jerry Vinson concurred in the opinion, which was “unpublished” and so has no precedential value outside the related case.
Town Council met in a closed executive session with its attorneys this week to discuss the opinions and the easements it still needs to obtain in order for the Corps to move forward with a $14 million project to place up to 200,000 cubic yards of sand on the island’s south end to repair damage caused by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
Once it has the easements, the Corps will update its plans for the work and its environmental compliance before soliciting a construction contract, a spokesman said.
It will take about a year after the easements are acquired before a construction contract is awarded, he said.
Town Council voted to reaffirm a resolution on the easements adopted in 2024 before three of the current members were elected.
On the subject of last week’s opinions, Mayor Brian Henry said, “some of that language will be appealed.”
The opinions were the results of appeals filed by the property owners challenging the condemnations – Frank Beattie, Barry Stanton and Sunset Lodge LLC. While the Circuit Court quashed the initial condemnations and the town withdrew a second attempt, the issue of attorney’s fees remained in dispute.
In the first set of cases, the owners claimed $175,895 in fees for 950 hours of work. That was done by Stanton, an attorney who represented his neighbors and only claimed $1,083 in costs for himself.
The town challenged that, and Judge Michael Nettles awarded Beattie and Sunset Lodge $8,913 each based on 125 hours of work.
In the second set of cases, Judge Benjamin Culbertson reduced an $18,149 fee claim for 282.6 hours to $13,018 for 65.6 hours.
The Appeals Court found that the property owners claims were excessive, but said the cases were more complex than the Circuit Court judges acknowledged. It awarded $47,500 for 250 hours in the first set of cases and $15,181 for 79.9 hours in the second set.
In reaching those figures, the Appeals Court said they were warranted because of the work required when the town acknowledged that it planned to try again to condemn the easements.
McDonald noted “the Town’s steadfast refusal to accept responsibility for its own problematic conduct – and the degree to which the Town’s behavior may have led to council devoting more time to these cases.”
And she added, “the Town’s problematic behavior undoubtedly increased the attorney time Landowners’ counsel believed was needed to counter the Town’s repeated – and, as recognized in the summary judgment order, apparently unnecessary – intrusions on their private property rights.”
In summarizing the issues in the initial condemnation actions, the Appeals Court said the easement would have provided “overly broad public access” to private property.
In moving to condemn the easements in 2020, Town Council adopted a resolution “erroneously claiming the Town’s project with the Army Corps of Engineers could not proceed without them.”
It also noted that the owners drafted their own easements to allow the renourishment, “but the Town inexplicably rejected them.”
In its resolutions for acquiring the easements, the town states that the Corps “requires easements incorporating the language of its standard estate ‘Perpetual Beach Storm Damage Reduction Easement.’”
Henry said the Appeals Court’s questioning of the Corps’ need for the easements was a particular concern.
Stanton said he had not had time to read both orders thoroughly and wasn’t able to comment.
