Gene M. Connell, Jr. | Surfside Beach Personal Injury Lawyer

Gene M. Connell, Jr. has been a member of the law firm since 1983. With his vast experience in many legal areas, he has received an “AV” rating with Martindale Hubbell, the most prestigious lawyer rating service in the country.

He has been involved in some of the largest class-action suits ever brought in South Carolina, one of which (Bass v. State of South Carolina) went all the way to the United States Supreme Court before it was successfully settled. He has also argued numerous appeals before the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission Appellate Division, the United States District Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Additionally, he has served as an expert witness in class actions on the issue of attorneys’ fees in both state and federal courts.

Mr. Connell’s trial practice has included being a Mediator for other lawyers and being appointed by the Circuit Court as a Special Referee (Special Judge) to hear cases. He was also selected as the “National Trial Lawyers Top 100” in 2014 and chosen ” Best of The Beach” Lawyer.

Position	Organization	Location	Duration
Partner	Kelaher Connell & Connor, PC	Surfside Beach, SC	Present

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
University of South Carolina School of Law	J.D.	Law School	1983
College of Charleston	Bachelors		1980

State / Court	Date
South Carolina	1984

• Member | American Bar Association
  Member | South Carolina Supreme Court Resolution of Fee Dispute Committee

• AV Rating w/ Martindale-Hubbell For Ethical Standards And Legal Abilities
  National Trial Lawyers Top 100 | 2014 & 2016

• Paulette Myers v. Dollar General Corporation, No. (2018)
  UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT Dollar General appeals the district court’s denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law after the jury awarded Paulette A. Myers $75,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages on her slander claim under South Carolina law. Alternatively, Dollar General contends that even if the compensatory damages award stands, the punitive damages award must be vacated because the district court should not have submitted the issue of punitive damages to the jury, and because the district court erroneously instructed the jury as to punitive damages. We affirm. Myers’ suit arose out of a November 8, 2014, incident at the Dollar General store in McClellanville, South Carolina. On that day, the store manager, Theresa Tyler, told two deputies from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office that Myers and her nephew Kareem Singleton were shoplifters. The deputies detained Myers and Singleton outside the store for more than an hour before releasing them with warning citations. Although no criminal charges were ever filed, Myers and Singleton were banned from the store. Tyler testified that she believed Myers and Singleton were shoplifters based on surveillance video from November 6, 2014, which Tyler believed showed Myers stealing cosmetics. Tyler also found it suspicious that although Myers and Singleton entered the store together on November 8, they each took a cart and went in separate directions inside the store. At trial, Myers’ niece testified that she, not Myers, was the woman in the November 6 video, and that she had not stolen anything. Myers testified that she was not the same height or weight as her niece, had a different hairstyle, and was significantly older. Myers and Singleton both testified that they had their own carts on November 8 because they were shopping for different things. Although Tyler had initially maintained that the November 6 video showed Myers stealing from Dollar General, she admitted at trial that she was mistaken. She stated that she had no ill will toward Myers, and made an honest mistake. Federal jurisdiction in this case rests on diversity and therefore this Court applies the substantive law of South Carolina.Under South Carolina law, “[t]he tort of defamation allows a plaintiff to recover for injury to her reputation as the result of the defendant’s communication to others of a false message about the plaintiff. Slander is a spoken defamation while libel is a written defamation or one accomplished by actions or conduct.” To recover on a slander claim, the plaintiff must show that “(1) a false and defamatory statement was made; (2) the unprivileged publication was made to a third party; (3) the publisher was at fault;” and (4) the statement is actionable. The district court correctly determined that, based on the evidence at trial and taking all legitimate inferences in Myers’ favor, a reasonable jury could have found Dollar General liable for slander, either because the defamatory statement was not privileged or because Dollar General abused the privilege. This case turns heavily on the credibility of Tyler’s testimony that she made an honest mistake and bore no ill will against Myers, which is a core jury question. Moreover, because of Tyler’s testimony that she accused Myers of shoplifting largely on the basis of the November 6 video, the jury’s conclusions about what the video did or did not show loom large. If the jury concluded that the video belied Tyler’s claim that she honestly mistook Myers to be a shoplifter, it could have also concluded that the only explanation for Tyler’s actions was either ill will or reckless disregard for Myers’ rights. Accordingly, Dollar General was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law on liability. Dollar General also seeks to set aside the jury’s award of punitive damages, arguing that the district court failed to properly instruct the jury that it needed to find by clear and convincing evidence that Dollar General acted with actual malice, and that Myers failed as a matter of law to meet this standard. Although the district court did not use the term “actual malice” when it instructed the jury on punitive damages, its instruction on the substance of actual malice was substantially similar to the instruction Dollar General requested. The court also instructed the jury that Myers must prove her entitlement to punitive damages by clear and convincing evidence. Accordingly, Dollar General cannot show that the district court abused its discretion in instructing the jury on punitive damages. The district court also did not err in determining that a reasonable jury could find that an award of punitive damages was appropriate in this case. As noted above, this case turns largely on Tyler’s credibility and the jury’s conclusions about the November 6 video. While it may have been reasonable for the jury to decline to award punitive damages, and while the clear and convincing standard is a higher burden of proof than preponderance of the evidence, Dollar General has not shown on appeal that no reasonable jury could find that Myers was entitled to punitive damages. We therefore affirm the jury’s verdict and the district court’s judgment. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

• Bronnie Bowen v. US Capital Corporation (1985)
  This case involved purchasers of condominiums who did not receive interest on their presale deposits. It was certified by the Circuit Court after an appeal to the South Carolina Court of Appeals and later settled.

• Timothy L. Phillips and Andrea L. Phillips v. GSWSA
  Civil Action No. 95-CP-26-1805; a class action brought by the Plaintiffs against Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority for collection of improper water and sewer fees which was certified by the Circuit Court.

• Bass v. State of South Carolina (1994)
  Civil Action No. 89-CP-26-1136; The largest class action settlement ever against the State of South this case involved 64,000 Federal retirees who brought an action against the South Carolina Department of Revenue for return of state taxes which had been collected on Federal pensions. This case went to the South Carolina Supreme Court on two occasions and the United States Supreme Court on two occasions. Eventually, a class action settlement was reached in 1994 in which approximately $89 million was refunded to Federal retirees throughout South Carolina.

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Gene McCain Connell has been a Premium Member since August 31, 2020.
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Verified Credentials	Date Verified
(1984) Licensed as Attorney in South Carolina. Verified with South Carolina Bar.	August 31, 2020

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