Tinsley v. Ervin Co.

216 S.E.2d 170, 264 S.C. 487, 1975 S.C. LEXIS 379
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedMay 26, 1975
Docket20017
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 216 S.E.2d 170 (Tinsley v. Ervin Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tinsley v. Ervin Co., 216 S.E.2d 170, 264 S.C. 487, 1975 S.C. LEXIS 379 (S.C. 1975).

Opinion

Per Curiam:

The plaintiff, J. A. Tinsley, is the owner of 24 acres of land in Greenville County. Adjacent to and west of Tinsley’s property the defendant, The Ervin Company, purchased and developed a large tract of land into a residential subdivision.

In the development of the Ervin subdivision, C. W. Baker Grading Company (alleged in the complaint to be a corporation) had a contract to perform the grading, which involved the use of heavy equipment. W. V. McGrew and Sons, a corporation, had a contract to perform plumbing and electrical work; it necessitated blasting.

This action was commenced by Tinsley against Ervin, Baker and McGrew for alleged acts of trespass during construction. The complaint alleges that damage to Tinsley’s property were caused by Ervin, Baker and McGrew, and that Baker and McGrew were acting as agents of Ervin.

The complaint further alleges:

“(T)hat. . . The Ervin Company, through its agents and employees, did commit numerous acts of trespass upon the property of the Plaintiff, including but not limited to:
“a. Blasting and casting numerous rock upon the land of Plaintiff.
“b. Destruction and damages to numerous trees of the Plaintiff.
“c. Destruction of fence of Plaintiff.
“d. Driving motor vehicles and earth moving machinery onto and over property of Plaintiff.
“e. Casting water, mud and silt upon property of Plaintiff.”

[492]*492Ervin interposed first, a general denial, and secondly, by way of a cross-action against Baker, denied that Baker was acting as its agent and denied that Baker had committed any of the wrongful acts alleged by the plaintiff, but went on to assert that should the jury find that Baker had committed such acts and that Baker was acting as the agent of Ervin at the time, then Ervin should have judgment over against Baker for any verdict rendered against Ervin as a result of acts committed by Baker.

Ervin entered a similar cross-action as to McGrew.

Baker made a special appearance to contest the jurisdiction of the court over “C. W. Baker Grading Company, a Corporation.” By way of affidavit, C. W. Baker averred “that said C. W. Baker Grading Company is not and never has been a corporation, but rather is a sole proprietorship owned and operated by the deponent.” In the special appearance Baker asserted that he was a resident of North Carolina and that service made, both by certified mail and personal delivery to Mrs. Baker at the Baker residence, was ineffective to obtain jurisdiction of him. The lower court overruled Baker’s motion on April 2, 1973, but the order is not contained in the record. It seems to be now conceded that C. W. Baker Grading Company is not a corporation, but simply the name under which C. W. Baker individually does busines. No motion to amend, as permitted by section 10-692 of the South Carolina Code, in case of a misnomer, was made by either Tinsley or Ervin.

Thereafter, “C. W. Baker Grading Company, an alleged corporation, expressly reserving without waiving all rights under its notice of special appearance and motion to quash,” answered both the complaint of Tinsley and the cross-action of Ervin, admitting that grading work was performed “in accordance with the sittings, readings, measurements, elevations, and markings established by the agents, servants, and employees of said defendant, The Ervin Company.” In what might be termed a general denial, it denied any responsibility to either Tinsley or Ervin.

[493]*493At the end of Tinsley’s evidence, the trial judge granted Baker a nonsuit, basically on the ground that Tinsley’s witnesses had not identified workers on the job as employees of Baker.

At the end of all the evidence, Ervin moved to have stricken from the complaint allegations, b, c, and d of paragraph III, quoted hereinabove. It was the argument of counsel for Ervin that there was no evidence showing that its employees damaged Tinsley’s trees as alleged in b, or destroyed his fence as alleged in c, or drove motor vehicles and earth moving equipment onto the damaged property as alleged in d. Ervin did not ask for a directed verdict as to the whole complaint and candidly admits that a jury issue is made up as to paragraph e, which alleges that Ervin cast water, mud and silt upon Tinsley’s property. The motion to strike was denied.

With Ervin and McGrew as remaining defendants, the issues were submitted to the jury, which found against Ervin in the amount of $15,500.00 actual damages, and against McGrew in the amount of $500.00 actual damages. McGrew has not appealed. Ervin has appealed from the trial judge’s refusal to grant its motion for a new trial.

Ervin lists five questions in its brief for this Court’s determination, which are as follows:

“1. Did the Court err in refusing to grant a continuance because of improper and inflammatory remarks made by a member of the jury panel to other jury panel members, one or more of whom ultimately served on the petit jury?
“2. Did the Court err in failing to admit evidence as to the value placed on the land in question by the plaintiff in a condemnation proceeding by the Greater Greenville Sewer District ?
“3. Should C. W. Baker Grading Company have been granted a nonsuit after the plaintiff rested his case?
“4. Should allegations, a, b, c, and d of Paragraph III of the plaintiff’s Complaint have been stricken at the conclusion of all the evidence?
[494]*494“5. Was the verdict unconscionably excessive, arbitrary and capricious, and unsupported by the evidence?”

As an additional ground to sustain its discharge from the action, Baker argues that the trial court erred in refusing to hold that jurisdiction was never acquired over him. In the view that we take as to the proper disposition of the appeal, we find it unnecessary to pass upon the additional sustaining ground.

As to question three, we need not delicately evaluate the evidence to determine whether Baker should have been granted a nonsuit. It is undisputed that Baker was sued as a corporation which is nonexistent. We need not discuss the powers of the court to retain control over a litigant in case a party has been misnamed, since no motion to substitute C. W. Baker individually has been made, even though counsel was put on notice approximately two months before trial that C. W. Baker Grading Company was not a corporation. Tinsley does not now complain that Baker was dismissed; neither Tinsley nor Ervin should be heard to complain because neither attempted by way of motion, as permitted under section 10-692 of our Code, to amend so as to properly name Baker as an individual defendant.

Additionally in the course of the presentation of the plaintiff’s case, Ervin, as a matter of courtesy and convenience, was allowed to present the testimony of one of its key witnesses, out of order. This witness, a Mr. Landry was at pertinent times the area manager of Ervin’s Greenville operation and according to his testimony he visited the property daily over a period of several months during which time the damages to Tinsley were allegedly done.

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Related

McQuaig Ex Rel. McQuaig v. Brown
242 S.E.2d 688 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
216 S.E.2d 170, 264 S.C. 487, 1975 S.C. LEXIS 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tinsley-v-ervin-co-sc-1975.