Water authority can litigate in own county: Fid-Bau Portal

Water authority can litigate in own county

The Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled that a county water authority could not be prevented from bringing a breach of contract action against a contractor in the authority's own county. The Newberry County Water and Sewer Authority was a countywide service with 1341 residential water taps serving an estimated 4700 people out of a county population of approximately 29,000. Use of the authority's facilities was not mandatory; it sold water to customers on a contract basis. The authority brought suit against a contractor for breach of a contract for construction of a water line in the county. The contractor sought and was granted a transfer of the suit to another county on the basis that it would be impossible to empanel a jury in Newberry County that would not have a direct or indirect interest in any recovery made by the authority. The high court reversed this decision, pointing out that the limited extent of the authority's service indicated that about five sixths of the citizens of the county were not users of the authority's services. The trial court's decision, the high court said, was that the authority could not litigate in its own county. This was too drastic a conclusion, the high court said.