South Carolina manufacturers win protections from 'nuisance lawsuits'

A bill aimed at protecting South Carolina manufacturers from "nuisance lawsuits" is heading to Gov. Henry McMaster for his signature.

The amended proposal, which was approved by the House on Wednesday, limits the ability of residents near manufacturing plants to claim the facility is creating a nuisance as long as it's following the law and has up-to-date permits.

Business groups and manufacturers had sought the protections as urban development increasingly encroaches on industrial sites.

"It's a good win for the manufacturers in the Upstate," said Jason Zacher, Greenville Chamber senior vice president of business advocacy. "Part of our concern has been that a lot of these manufacturers invested hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities that were out in the country 20 years ago and are now being surrounded by subdivisions."

Zacher said the measure will help keep companies and jobs in the area.

"People that have bought their houses near these manufacturing plants should understand that they're buying next to a manufacturing plant," he said. "It's also very difficult for a manufacturing plant to pick up and move, and if they do, we're afraid that they just might pick up and move somewhere else."

But conservationists say shielding companies from nuisance lawsuits is unnecessary and limits the rights of citizens.

"The biggest concern we had with this bill is that it essentially gave industries permanent and complete immunity from any potential litigation-related nuisance and thereby kind of gave them free license to just ignore the conversations and feedback from nearby neighbors," said John Tynan, executive director of Conservation Voters of South Carolina. "Obviously we're not talking about every industry, we're talking about the small percentage that might be bad actors."

Tynan said companies already are rarely held accountable by the state for problems they create, and the new rules could make that an even harder task.

"The benefit of having 250 years of legal precedent is that it can adjust and change to those 'what-if' scenarios that everybody comes up with now. At this point, we lose that flexibility," Tynan said. "You lose the ability to address an unforeseen circumstance that happens because of changes in technology or changes we can't predict right now."

In a statement, South Carolina Chamber president and CEO Ted Pitts thanked lawmakers for approving the bill.

“Both the House and the Senate understand that manufacturing is a vital and growing piece of South Carolina business environment, and this legislation guards existing industrial and manufacturing facilities from frivolous lawsuits that can stifle growth and innovation,” Pitts said.

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