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by WILL FOLKS
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Last summer, we reported extensively on a multi-million dollar judgment entered against the City of Columbia, South Carolina after it destroyed a wall on private property without compensation – resulting in chronic flooding and the destruction of a well-known local small business.
Last May, Constan Car Wash and its owner, O. Stanley Smith III, filed an “inverse condemnation” claim against the city after it demolished the wall. The city claimed it owned the property on which the wall stood – but never provided any proof of that assertion. In fact, records showed the property in question has been owned by railroad company Norfolk Southern since 1874.
S.C. circuit court judge Robert Hood ruled in Smith’s favor – concluding the city’s destruction of the wall “was an affirmative, positive, aggressive act that caused plaintiffs’ damages.” In fact, Hood stated the city’s action was “calculated to destroy plaintiffs’ wall, and in fact were intended to cause flooding on the property.”
The court ordered the city to pay Smith $4.2 million, not counting interest payments and attorneys’ fees. Six months later, the city hasn’t paid – and escalating interest costs (nearly $1,800 per day) have turned this into a $6 million obligation for city taxpayers.
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With city leaders showing no interest in fulfilling their obligations under the law, attorneys for Smith have decided to take matters into their own hands.
According to a motion filed on Tuesday (February 3, 2026), Smith’s attorney – Dick Harpootlian – is demanding the city cough up the proceeds it is receiving from a shady hotel deal it announced in December.
FITSNews previously reported on this backroom agreement in detail, noting how city leaders hastily fast-tracked a deal with Kessler Enterprise Inc. – an Orlando-based development company – even though a much higher offer from another developer was on the table (and even though both offers came in dramatically below the appraised value of the property).
“It was all secret, all behind closed doors – all done in the dark,” Rick Patel – the developer who submitted the highest known bid on the properties – told us back in December.
“City taxpayers are losing millions of dollars they don’t have to lose,” Patel added, referring to the gap between his bid and the proposal submitted by Kessler.
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RELATED | COLUMBIA UNDER FIRE FOR SHADY HOTEL DEAL
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Now, Harpootlian is asking the city to surrender the money it is making on the deal to cover part of the judgment Smith won against it last summer. Specifically, his motion (.pdf) seeks an order requiring the city to turn over “proceeds from the purchase and sale agreement between the city and The Kessler Enterprise, Inc. for the sale of the property.”
“It would be unfair and unjust for the city to have a judgment awarding the plaintiffs just compensation under the South Carolina Constitution while allowing it to sell property not actually used by the public which can be used to satisfy in part plaintiffs’ judgment,” the motion noted.
According to the filing, “the city has both a legal duty and an inherent responsibility to its citizens to pay its constitutional obligations, especially when those obligations are currently accruing interest at $1,761.08 a day.”
Reached for comment about the filing, Harpootlian told us his client is simply pursuing rights and remedies available under state law for the satisfaction of a judgment entered against the city on his behalf.
“We’re treating the city as we would any other defendant who lost at trial and now owes money,” Harpootlian said.
The filing seeks a hearing at the court’s “earliest convenience” to address Smith’s claim.
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we track the latest court drama tied to the city’s unlawful destruction of private property – and engage in further scrutiny of its dubious deal with Kessler.
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THE MOTION…
(S.C. Fifth Circuit)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
“With city leaders showing no interest in fulfilling their obligations under the law”
Hey Will, any update on Rom Reddy taking down his seawall?
Free Happy the Tiger
If Kessler actually moves forward and fully accomplishes the construction of the four- star hotel that they have promised the City, then there is a fairly reasonable argument to be made that the sale of the property will generate a long-term return in the form of property taxes gained on the property, the jobs it creates, and the increased tourism to downtown for all the area businesses. But the problem is that – repeatedly- these types of ventures almost never get built in the manner promised and the City does not get what was promised; the deals are not drafted with “teeth” to provide a mechanism for the City to force them to fulfill their promises, or if they do, our leadership fails to exercise them. And the developers always come back asking for more concessions – tax breaks, requests for muni bonds (that taxpayers have to pay) to finance the infrastructure, or some zoning or environmental regulation variance or they knew about all along but never revealed their intentions, etc. The two most prominent examples of this are Canalside and the Bull Street development. But there are others.
Rickenmann doth protest too much.