Mount Pleasant legal fees mounting in Shem Creek parking garage lawsuit

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The Town of Mount Pleasant owes millions of dollars and counting to a developer and their lawyer in a years-long lawsuit over a breach of contract issue, but the town continues to hope for a reversal after two rulings against them.

The Shem Creek Development Group challenged the town with a lawsuit in 2017 after they alleged the town went back on a deal and put last minute restrictions on their build. The structure on Coleman Boulevard houses some offices and pay to park spaces for Shem Creek businesses.

After a 2020 trial laid out all the facts, the court ordered the town to pay the developer $2.6 million in damages and cover the developer’s legal fees. The town appealed the court decision and lost its appeal in 2024. During that time, the $2.6 million in damages was accruing interest, and the developer’s legal fees continued to pile up, hearing after hearing and filing after filing. As of April, the estimated interest on the damages is $1.2 million.

Brandon Gaskins, representing the Shem Creek Development Group says those interest rates fluctuate year to year, but will continue to apply every day the town continues the litigation.

As of April 22, the town has filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court asking them to review the issue. The town will continue to accrue interest on the damages while they wait to hear about a State Supreme Court review, and if their petition to reverse fails, they will be responsible for the damages and Gaskin’s continuing legal fees representing the developer through it all .

“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s decision awarding damages for the Town’s breach of contract and bad faith actions. Unfortunately, my client’s gain comes at the expense of the Town’s hardworking taxpayers who have had to foot the bill for the poor decisions of their elected officials,” Gaskins says.

He estimates that at the current rates, the damages payment is going up $1,500 a day.

“The appeal alone has already cost taxpayers over $1 million in interest and attorney fees, while the ongoing pursuit of this will cost an additional $40,000-$50,000 a month,” Gaskins says.

The Town of Mount Pleasant did not comment, as is their policy on pending litigation, about the fees at this point in the case.

“We hoped the Court of Appeal’s decision will help Town Council see that it’s time to move on and allocate these resources toward more prudent areas like first responders, parks, and transportation projects,” Gaskins says.

But the town is pushing through. In 2020, the court ordered the town to cover the developer’s $298,000 in legal fees to pay Gaskins and he estimates billing nearly $98,000 during the appeals process into 2024. The town is on the hook for all of those fees.

Even if the town manages to get this case to the state supreme court, and clear the high hurdles to get a reversal, they have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their own legal fees. Records show that Mount Pleasant spent more than $282,450 on their own legal fees between 2017 and the trial. Continuing records show the town racked up more than $171,550 during the appeals process into 2024.

Gaskins says he and his client are in this until the end, but they hoped the appeal denial would be the end of the case.