The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the lawyers who successfully sued the Department of Energy over the Savannah River Site’s mismanaged Mixed Oxide (MOX) plutonium facility are entitled to $75 million of the $600 million settlement the state received.
The ruling was issued last Wednesday Nov. 12. South Carolina has litigation against DOE dating to 2016 over the aborted MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at SRS.
Last week’s decision is part of a lawsuit filed in September 2020 by a government watchdog group, which came weeks after the August 2020 settlement was announced in earlier litigation.
Wednesday’s ruling states that Willoughby & Hoefer, and Davidson & Wren, can access the $75 million in legal fees allotted to them in the settlement. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who filed an earlier 2016 lawsuit against DOE, formerly worked for Willoughby & Hoefer, which no longer exists.
Wilson, who is the son of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), and the two private firms were sued by the South Carolina Public Interest Foundation in 2020. The watchdog group argued the entire $600 million should be used to benefit the public. Wilson’s team contended that South Carolina was within its rights to seek outside legal expertise in its 2016 MOX dispute, and was therefore obligated to pay those attorneys just like any other case. More than five years later, the state Supreme Court sided with Wilson and the two firms.
“We affirm the circuit court’s ruling that the Attorney General has the authority to enter into contingent fee agreements with private law firms. Indeed, Appellants do not dispute that ruling,” the high court wrote. “We reject Appellants’ request for a remand to determine the reasonableness of the fee. We hold the $75 million fee is payable to the law firms.”