Opinion ID: 1344687
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: capacity to be sued

Text: Appellants next contend the Charleston County Legislative Delegation is not capable of being sued in its own name. We disagree. The thrust of appellants' contention is that the Delegation has not been established as a corporate body such that the failure to serve the individual members of the Delegation deprived the circuit court of jurisdiction. This contention is without merit. In Graham v. Lloyd's of London, 296 S.C. 249, 371 S.E.2d 801 (Ct.App.1988), the Court of Appeals held that an unincorporated association may be sued under the name by which it was generally known without naming the individual members of the association. Accordingly, the lack of status as a public corporation does not divest the Delegation of the ability to be sued. Moreover, the Delegation, as a state agency, was served in accordance with Rule 4(d)(5), SCRCP. The summons and complaint were delivered to its secretary at its Charleston office, and respondents are prepared to show that the Attorney General was served in conformity with the Rule. [2] Contrary to appellants' contention, nothing in the rule requires each individual in an agency to be served. Although representatives of commissions, delegations and boards are often named individually, there is no requirement in the rules they be so named and there are numerous cases in which individual members have not been named. See e.g. Cameron and Barkley v. S.C. Procurement Review Panel, 317 S.C. 437, 454 S.E.2d 892 (1995); Willis Constr. Co. v. Sumter Airport Comm'n, 308 S.C. 505, 419 S.E.2d 240 (Ct.App.1992); Charleston County School District v. Budget and Control Board, 313 S.C. 1, 437 S.E.2d 6 (1993); Davis v. Budget and Control Board, 301 S.C. 373, 392 S.E.2d 183 (1990). [3] Accordingly, it was unnecessary to name and serve the Delegation's individual members.