South Carolina § 56-29-60 - Civil proceedings.

§ 56-29-60. Civil proceedings.

(A) The Attorney General, any circuit solicitor, or any aggrieved person may institute civil proceedings against any person in any court of competent jurisdiction seeking relief from conduct constituting a violation of any provision of this chapter. If the plaintiff in the proceeding proves the alleged violation, or its threat, by a preponderance of the evidence, any court of competent jurisdiction after due provision for the rights of innocent persons, shall grant relief by entering any appropriate order or judgment, including, but not limited to:

(1) ordering any defendant to be divested of any interest in any property;

(2) imposing reasonable restrictions upon the future activities or investments of any defendant, including prohibiting any defendant from engaging in the same type of endeavor as the defendant was engaged in previously;

(3) ordering the surrender of the charter of a corporation organized under the laws of the State or the revocation of a certificate authorizing a foreign corporation to conduct business within the State upon finding that the board of directors or a managerial agent acting on behalf of the corporation, in conducting the affairs of the corporation, has authorized or engaged in conduct made unlawful by this chapter and that, for the prevention of future criminal conduct, the public interest requires the charter of the corporation be surrendered and the corporation dissolved or the certificate revoked.

(B) In a proceeding under this section, injunctive relief must be granted in conformity with the principles that govern the granting of relief from injury or threatened injury in other cases, but no showing of special or irreparable injury must be made. Pending final determination of a proceeding under this section, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction may be issued upon a showing of immediate danger of significant injury, including the possibility that any judgment for money damages might be difficult to execute, and, in a proceeding initiated by an aggrieved person, upon the execution of proper bond against injury for an injunction improvidently granted.

(C) Any person injured, directly or indirectly, by conduct constituting a violation by any person of Section 56-29-30, in addition to any other relief, shall have a cause of action for threefold the actual damages sustained by the person.

(D) A final judgment or decree rendered against the defendant in any civil or criminal proceeding shall estop the defendant in any subsequent civil action or proceeding brought by any person as to all matters as to which the judgment or decree would be an estoppel as between the parties to the civil or criminal proceeding.

(E) Personal service of any process in an action under this section may be made upon any person outside the State if the person has engaged in any conduct constituting a violation of Section 56-29-30 in this State. The person is considered to have thereby submitted to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State for the purposes of this provision.

(F) Obtaining any civil remedy under this section does not preclude obtaining any other civil or criminal remedy under either this act or any other provision of law. Civil remedies under this section are supplemental and not mutually exclusive.

HISTORY: 1987 Act No. 16, SECTION 7.