Current and former members of the Renaissance Tower
homeowners’ association being sued in the aftermath of an
October evacuation are immune from legal action under the
state law.
That’s what attorneys representing property management
companies and nine past and current HOA members argued in
federal court this week in pushing to get the lawsuit
tossed.
Residents of the 22-story complex in Myrtle Beach were
ordered to clear out of the high rise Oct. 7 by Horry County
code enforcement officials after weaknesses in the steel
frame of its foundation were discovered.
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Residents have been evacuated from the 22-story Renaissance Tower at Myrtle Beach Resort after structural engineers found the building unsafe. A section of the busy beach front also also been closed. October 14, 2022. |
A week later, residents filed a federal class action suit against the Renaissance Tower board of directors and property management companies responsible for maintaining the building, saying they ignored earlier warnings about its structural integrity.
But the state’s
Nonprofit Corporation Act exempts the board from liability
unless it can be proven members intentionally violated the
law, its lawyers said in a Dec. 13 motion to dismiss the
suit.
The board’s legal team also said too much time passed
between initial reports of the building’s foundational
problems and when the suit was filed.
Attorneys said Renaissance Tower residents had two
opportunities to press forward with legal action: First in
2018 when the homeowners’ association learned about the
damaged support beams and then August 2020 when they were
alerted to the problem by a newsletter.
“Even viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs,
plaintiffs’ allegations simply cannot support a legal
conclusion that plaintiffs’ alleged damages caused by
defendants’ delay in initiating repairs was foreseeable,”
John Ford Connell Jr., a partner at Greenville-based Burr and Foreman LLP, wrote in the motion.