In 2020, BTL recovered $250,000 in claims against a developer and two builders of a waterfront neighborhood in Charleston. Our clients purchased new homes which featured deepwater docks, only to find shortly after moving in that the creek bank was undergoing alarmingly rapid erosion which threatened to collapse portions of the docks and, if left unchecked, eventually could threaten the houses themselves. Through discovery BTL established that to build our clients’ houses, the developer had stripped virtually all vegetation from what historically had been a heavily-wooded, long-stable creek bank, but had failed to install the seawall which was necessary to prevent catastrophic erosion of the stripped, nearly treeless creek bank. The sum recovered represented the full price of the seawall and ancillary damages.   

In 2018, BTL successfully resolved claims for clients in Beaufort, SC, who purchased a new home from a national homebuilder, moved in, and promptly began to notice old glass, rusty sheet metal, and other solid waste just beneath the grass in their yard. Through discovery, the firm established that the house had been built on an illegal dumping site that the builder had not remediated before construction. On the third day of the jury trial, the builder relented and agreed to buy our client’s house back at full value, and to pay our clients $92,500 as well.   

In 2020, BTL settled a case for clients who had been driven from their new home by a persistent metallic odor in the house, apparently emanating from the materials the builder had used to construct the house. The builder paid for alternate housing throughout two years of litigation, ultimately repurchased the house at full purchase price, and paid our clients $175,000.