Largest South Carolina Group Settlements and Injury Recovery Funds

As court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik negotiated a settlement requiring 3M Company to pay up to $12.5 billion to public water systems contaminated by PFAS compounds in firefighting foam, the largest drinking-water settlement in American legal history.

As court-appointed co-lead counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik helped negotiate a $1.185 billion class settlement with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva to compensate public water systems across the United States for PFAS contamination tied to firefighting foam.

BASF Corporation agreed to pay $316.5 million to resolve claims by public water systems across the United States over PFAS contamination tied to firefighting foam. The sum is a $312.5 million settlement fund plus $4 million for notice and administration. Judge Richard Gergel approved it on Nov. 22, 2024, in the federal multidistrict litigation over aqueous film-forming foam. It is a class recovery shared among many water systems, not one plaintiff's award.

A federal jury awarded $262.5 million after finding that a defective rear liftgate latch on a 1985 Dodge Caravan caused a six-year-old boy to be ejected and killed in a 1994 crash; the punitive damages were later reversed on appeal and the case settled confidentially in 2001.

Shannon Shaw was riding his motorcycle in St. George, South Carolina, in September 2021 when an Amazon delivery van turned left across his path. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and orthopedic injuries that led to a cervical fusion. In December 2023 a Dorchester County jury found Amazon vicariously liable and grossly negligent and returned $44.63 million, including $30 million in punitive damages against Amazon.

A South Carolina family reached a confidential $40.35 million settlement, structured under a high-low agreement, after radiologists reading a newborn's early chest X-rays missed a ribcage deformity that turned out to be a sign of neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer that grew into the child's spinal canal and caused permanent paralysis before it was caught.

A Richland County jury awarded Michael Perry, a 53-year-old man diagnosed with mesothelioma, $63.4 million on August 15, 2024. The award was $32.6 million in compensatory damages plus $30 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and $760,000 against American International Industries. Perry alleged asbestos in Johnson's Baby Powder and other talc products caused his cancer. Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal.

A Richland County jury unanimously awarded $32 million, including $10 million in punitive damages against Kraft Heinz, after finding that secondhand asbestos fibers carried home on work clothes caused Kathy Weist's fatal mesothelioma diagnosis.

Thomas was riding as a passenger on Highway 9 outside Cheraw, South Carolina, when a Prime, Inc. tractor-trailer, driven by a trainee with about 90 days of experience while his trainer slept in the sleeper berth, turned left in front of their car and caused catastrophic injuries. A Chesterfield County jury awarded him $30 million.

A Marlboro County jury awarded a 62-year-old woman $30 million after her Nissan Altima rolled forward on its own while she was locked outside it, climbing a parking barrier and pinning her against a gas station building, a result her attorneys traced to metal debris fouling the transmission's forward clutch.

Kenneth Berger secured a $26 million settlement for the family of a three-year-old who suffered severe chemical burns at Caribbean Resort and Villas in Myrtle Beach after a pool employee falsified chlorine records for years.

Christopher Pracht, now with Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys' South Carolina team, was trial counsel for the estate of Zerihun Wolde when an Horry County jury returned a $20.73 million verdict against Lack's Beach Service, the private company staffing lifeguards on the stretch of Myrtle Beach where Wolde drowned in a rip current in 2018. The South Carolina Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the verdict in July 2025, and the case is credited with ending the dual-role lifeguarding model on Grand Strand beaches.

Lennox Hinckson, a 65-year-old elevator mechanic, was crushed and fell roughly 60 feet at Holcim's cement plant in Holly Hill, South Carolina, after a Holcim employee called the elevator he was working on from a floor below. His estate settled wrongful death and negligence claims against Holcim for $20 million.

A federal jury awarded $17 million to the surviving relatives of a Canadian Army private, his wife, and their infant son killed when an XPO Express 18-wheeler plowed into slowed construction-zone traffic on Interstate 95 near Florence, South Carolina.

A Spartanburg County jury awarded Dara Robinson $16 million against Spartanburg & Pelham OBGYN and three of its physicians after they delayed a cesarean delivery for roughly 30 hours despite fetal monitoring showing signs of distress, and her son died shortly after birth.

Seletha Gartrell, 54, of Aiken, arrived at Aiken Regional Medical Centers on December 6, 2012 with severe sepsis and was not given the antibiotics her doctors ordered for roughly 14 hours; she went into septic shock, suffered a cardiac arrest, and lost both legs above the knee, her left arm below the elbow, and fingers on her right hand. In March 2017 an Aiken County jury found the hospital negligent and awarded her $13.75 million, made up of $10 million in economic damages and $3.75 million in non-economic damages. The hospital publicly disagreed with the verdict, and no appeal or later reduction appears in any public record we could find.

Vernon Sulton, paralyzed by gunshot wounds he suffered as a bystander to an armed robbery, was admitted to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbia with a stage two pressure ulcer on his sacrum; in the 11 days he stayed there it deepened to stage four, requiring a colostomy and skin-graft surgery. A Richland County jury found the hospital and six of its nurses negligent, awarding $306,693.25 to his estate, $4 million to his wife for loss of consortium, and $8 million in punitive damages against HealthSouth. On November 21, 2012 the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the entire verdict and ordered a new trial, holding that the trial judge had wrongly instructed the jury that the hospital owed a heightened duty of care. What happened after the remand is not in any public record we could find.

A South Carolina warehouse worker suffered permanent lumbar spinal injuries when a commercial trailer's improperly installed landing gear buckled during loading, sending a jury to award Anthony Avery $7.48 million in compensatory damages and $2.8 million in punitive damages against MG Logistics, Inc.

A 21-year-old driver who was overserved at two Spartanburg bars struck and killed two cousins at over 70 mph, leading to a $7.36 million wrongful death settlement paid by the bars and the driver.

The City of North Charleston paid $6.5 million to the family of Walter Scott, an unarmed man shot in the back by a police officer after a routine traffic stop, in what attorney L. Chris Stewart described as the largest pre-lawsuit settlement in South Carolina history.

A Berkeley County apartment complex that failed to equip its pool gates with code-required latching hardware settled the wrongful death claim of a three-year-old boy's family for six million dollars.

Joye Law Firm recovered $5 million for the estate of a Goodwill custodian killed when a terminal tractor with broken headlights made an illegal U-turn and struck her in a Joint Base Charleston parking lot.

A South Carolina man rear-ended by a drunk driver who fled the scene recovered $3.6 million after the driver's employer disputed vehicle ownership and scope of employment, with cervical fusion and knee surgery documented.

A St. Louis man who suffered permanent bilateral brain damage after an Audi SUV ran him over on a Charleston sidewalk in 2017 settled the resulting federal lawsuit for $3.5 million in July 2020.