Last week, this blog discussed a South Carolina Court of Appeals case involving the rule against perpetuities. This week, we look at the Court’s take on another basic real estate issue, King’s and sovereign grants. East Cherry Grove Co., LLC v. South Carolina* involves a dispute over dock permit over tidelands properties in North Myrtle Beach.

Matt Leonhard applied to DHEC for the permit over tidelands property adjacent to his property. East Cherry Grove Co., LLC and Ray & Nixon, LLC (collectively, Respondents) claimed they each owned a portion of the tidelands property, and the Circuit Court agreed.

The State of South Carolina appealed, making several legal arguments, including ownership by the State of navigable waterways, and the propriety of testimony by a real estate lawyer as to title even though he was not a surveyor.

At the Circuit Court’s bench trial, four King’s and sovereign grants were admitted into evidence. William Deschamps, a real estate lawyer, testified he searched the titles of the respective properties back to the grants. He testified he had no doubt that the properties were subject to the grants based on all the survey information and his review of the titles. On cross examination, he admitted he was not a surveyor and clarified that he was not rendering a surveying opinion but was basing his opinion on his title examinations after reviewing the grants in conjunction with the surveys.

A surveyor also testified and was asked if the property in question came from the grants. His response was, “There’s no other place it could have come from.” 

The Circuit Court ruled that the Respondents met their burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence that they owned their respective properties by virtue of the Grants. On appeal, the State argued that a clear and convincing standard should have been applied instead. The Court of Appeals agreed with the Circuit Court, stating that our case law provides that the State possesses presumptive title of tidelands property, and the person seeking to establish private ownership must present evidence to rebut the presumption.

The Court of Appeals agreed with the State, however, as to small portions of the East Cherry Grove tract that were outside of the grants.

The State argued that the titles should have been based on a particular plat rather than the plats relied upon by the Respondents because of the specificity of the State’s preferred plat. The Court of Appeals concluded that the Circuit Court had not erred in weighing all the evidence of title.

For simplicity, I’m omitting other issues that were argued but failed. Please read the case in its entirety for an interesting discussion of testimony in a real estate case.

*South Carolina Court of Appeals Opinion 6068 (July 3, 2024)