South Carolina Drowning Accident Lawyer

South Carolina Law and Drowning Cases: A Brief Overview

South Carolina's limitation statute covers "any injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract." Its wrongful-death statute covers a death "caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of another." A drowning or a nonfatal drowning that leaves someone injured can fall within these words. A nonfatal drowning is one the person survives, sometimes with a hypoxic or anoxic brain injury, which is damage caused when the brain goes without enough oxygen.

Claims after a drowning are usually framed in two ways. Premises liability is the responsibility a property owner or operator may carry for unsafe conditions on the property. Negligent supervision is a claim that someone responsible for watching swimmers, often children, did not watch with reasonable care.

Either way, the questions are the same four. Did someone owe a duty? Was that duty breached? Did the breach cause the injury or death? What harm resulted? A drowning, however heartbreaking, does not by itself answer any of those questions.

For a family still in shock, this framework matters for a simple reason. It turns "why did this happen" into questions that records, witnesses and the law can actually answer. An early conversation with an attorney can help a family see which of those questions their situation raises.

Where Drowning Accidents Happen in South Carolina

The setting shapes nearly everything that follows. Drownings and near-drownings in South Carolina happen in many kinds of places:

• hotel and resort pools
• apartment and condominium pools
• private backyard pools
• water parks
• lakes and rivers
• coastal and ocean beaches
• boating accidents on open water

The place matters because of why your family member was there. If they were a hotel guest or were otherwise invited for the owner's business, the law may treat them as an invitee. If they were a social guest, there for their own purposes, they may be a licensee. Someone with no permission to be there is a trespasser. The duty an owner may have owed your family can differ depending on which of these describes the visit.

South Carolina also has a recreational-use statute, a law that limits the duty of landowners who open land and water to the public for recreation. Its purpose, in section 27-3-10, is "to encourage owners of land to make land and water areas available to the public for recreational purposes by limiting their liability." Under section 27-3-30 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, an owner "owes no duty of care to keep the premises safe" for people who sought and got permission to use it for recreation, or to warn them of a dangerous condition. Under section 27-3-40, an owner who allows recreational use without charge does not, by that alone, give the person "the legal status of an invitee or licensee to whom a duty of care is owed."

Section 27-3-60 sets limits on that protection. The statute does not shield an owner "for grossly negligent, willful or malicious failure to guard or warn against a dangerous condition." It also does not apply where the owner charges people to enter for recreation. One exception: when land is leased to the State or a subdivision, the lease payment is not treated as a charge.

For a family whose loss happened at a lake, a river or open land, whether this statute applies depends on who owned the land, whether a fee was charged and what the owner knew. Questions a family may weigh include why their loved one was on the property, whether anyone paid to enter, and who owned or ran the site. An attorney can help sort out how those answers bear on the duty owed.

When More Than One Party May Share Responsibility

More than one party may have had a role in what happened at the water. Depending on the setting, the parties whose conduct the law may examine include:

• property owners, such as hotels, resorts, apartment complexes and private homeowners
• pool management and maintenance companies
• lifeguard staffing services
• water-park operators
• manufacturers or sellers of pool equipment, where a defective product, such as a drain cover or a barrier, may have played a part

For a family, each of these parties raises a different question about what went wrong. If the property seemed unsafe, the question for an owner is whether it was kept in reasonably safe condition. If a gate, fence or drain failed, the question for a management or maintenance company is whether that equipment was properly cared for. If no one seemed to be watching, the question for a lifeguard service is whether supervision was adequate for the people in the water. If a product failed, the question for a manufacturer is whether it was safe for its use. None of these questions assumes anyone fell short.

Responsibility in South Carolina can be divided. Section 15-38-15 of the South Carolina Code of Laws governs how damages are shared when more than one party's conduct caused the harm, as the fault section below explains. A party left out can change how responsibility is shared among those who remain. A family may find it useful to note who controlled the pool, the staff and the equipment, and a conversation with an attorney can help identify parties a family may not know were involved.

Filing Deadlines That Apply to Your Case in South Carolina

A statute of limitations is the law's deadline for filing a lawsuit. After it passes, a claim is generally barred. Under the South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 15, Chapter 3, an action for "assault, battery, or any injury to the person or rights of another, not arising on contract and not enumerated by law" must be brought within three years.

Section 15-3-535 says when those three years start for injuries. Except for medical malpractice actions, these actions "must be commenced within three years after the person knew or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known that he had a cause of action." This is often called the discovery rule.

For a death, the same section 15-3-530 gives three years for an action "for death by wrongful act." That period begins "upon the death of the person on account of whose death the action is brought."

Children are treated differently. Under section 15-3-40, a legal "disability" includes being under eighteen. In this context, it means a condition the law treats as preventing a person from bringing a suit on their own. "The time of the disability is not a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action." However, the period cannot be extended longer than one year after the disability ceases.

Government defendants follow the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, in chapter 78 of Title 15 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. This may matter for a public pool, a city park or a school. If a verified claim is filed, it "must be received within one year after the loss was or should have been discovered." Under sections 15-78-100 and 15-78-110, a suit generally must be started within two years after the loss was or should have been discovered. If a claim was first filed, that period is three years. Both suit periods are "except as provided for in Section 15-3-40." The chapter also provides that, except as section 15-78-120(a)(3) allows, no person may recover more than "three hundred thousand dollars because of loss arising from a single occurrence regardless of the number of agencies or political subdivisions involved."

For a family, these dates can matter as much as the facts. Which deadline applies turns on who was hurt, how old they were and who owned the place. If you are unsure whether a pool or park was publicly owned, or when the injury was first understood, those are questions an attorney can help answer while the timing is still clear.

Fault, Comparative Negligence, and What It Means for Your Family

Families often carry a quiet fear into this question. They wonder whether the injured person, or the parent who looked away, will be blamed.

If the swimmer or a supervising adult is said to have played a part, the law calls that comparative negligence: how much the injured person's own conduct contributed to the harm. Section 15-38-15 counts it when dividing responsibility. When harm that cannot be split apart was caused by more than one wrongdoer, joint and several liability does not apply to a defendant whose conduct is less than fifty percent of the total fault. Joint and several liability means one defendant can be made to answer for the whole amount. The total fault counts every defendant and wrongdoer, plus "the fault (comparative negligence), if any, of plaintiff." A defendant under fifty percent "shall only be liable for that percentage" of the damages the jury sets.

In plain terms, if a finder of fact decides that the swimmer, or a supervising adult, shared in the fault, that finding becomes part of how responsibility is divided. Facts that often bear on this include the supervision in place, the posted warnings, fencing and gates, and the condition of drains and equipment.

The same statute names the kinds of losses at issue. It covers economic loss and noneconomic loss "such as mental distress, loss of enjoyment, pain, suffering, loss of reputation, or loss of companionship." Economic loss can include medical expenses and lost wages.

South Carolina also recognizes punitive damages, which are meant to punish rather than repay. Under section 15-32-530 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, except as subsections (B) and (C) provide, such an award "may not exceed the greater of three times the amount of compensatory damages awarded to each claimant entitled thereto or the sum of five hundred thousand dollars."

A family worried about blame may weigh what they know about the warnings, gates and supervision that day. An attorney can help explain how those facts might be viewed when fault is divided.

Records That Can Help Explain What Happened

In the hours after a drowning, few families are thinking about records. Later, those records are often what explain what happened. If you were present or are caring for someone who was hurt, the records that usually matter include:

• incident reports and police reports
• surveillance or security camera footage
• pool maintenance and inspection logs
• lifeguard staffing and certification records
• emergency-response records and medical records
• photographs of the pool, the water, gates, drains and any equipment
• names and contact details of people who saw what happened

Many of these records are held by the property owner or operator, not the family, and whether footage or logs were kept, and for how long, can vary. That is the stake: a record that is gone cannot help show what happened. Families often keep what they already have, such as photos, discharge papers, receipts and the names of witnesses, and write down what they remember while it is fresh.

For someone at a bedside after a near-drowning, medical records also tell the story of the injury and the care that followed. That can matter in a brain-injury case, since its effects may show over time. An attorney can help identify which records others hold and how they may be requested.

When a Drowning Death Becomes a Wrongful-Death Claim in South Carolina

This section is for families who have lost someone. Nothing here can lessen that. It simply explains what the law provides.

A wrongful death claim is a lawsuit brought after a death caused by another's wrongful act or neglect. Under section 15-51-10 of the South Carolina Code of Laws, the claim exists when the person, had they lived, could have brought a claim for the injury. The claim survives even if the wrongdoer dies, and it can then be brought against that person's personal representative.

Section 15-51-20 says who brings the claim and for whom. The action "shall be brought by or in the name of the executor or administrator" of the person who died. It is for the benefit of the spouse and children. If there is no spouse or child, it is for the parents. If there are no parents, it is for the heirs. For parents who lost a child, this often means the claim is brought for their benefit through the child's estate.

The three years under section 15-3-530 begin at the death. The chapter also addresses settlement. If no action is pending, the personal representative must petition the probate court or the circuit court to approve a proposed settlement. That petition must be verified and must set out the facts surrounding the death and the beneficiaries, among other matters. The damages at issue are those the law names, including loss of companionship and mental distress, as section 15-38-15 lists them. These rules are specific to South Carolina. For comparison, the rules for a Georgia drowning wrongful-death claim or a Florida drowning case differ.

If your family is trying to understand whether these statutes fit what happened, you may want to consider a conversation about a case evaluation. It can cover the estate, the beneficiaries and the dates involved.