A federal jury on Friday ordered the owner of a huge landfill in Lee County to pay $2.3 million in damages to six Bishopville area residents for causing a stench they say has made life miserable for them.
The jury award against a division of waste giant Republic Services is rare, if not unprecedented in South Carolina, because it requires a company to pay damages based on nuisance landfill odors that affect people’s enjoyment of their property, attorneys for the residents said.
Lee County Landfill SC LLC is considering an appeal and likely will ask U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson to throw out the award, company lawyers said. An appeal could cause the case to drag on for months or even years.
