Opinion ID: 424755
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 The district court made no specific findings of fact, but since the court granted summary judgment for defendants, plaintiff is therefore entitled ... to have the credibility of his evidence as forecast assumed, his version of all that is in dispute accepted, all internal conflicts in it resolved favorably to him, the most favorable of possible alternative inferences from it drawn in his behalf; and, finally, to be given the benefit of all favorable legal theories invoked by the evidence so considered. Charbonnages de France v. Smith, 597 F.2d 406, 414 (4 Cir.1979); see also Chastain v. Litton Systems, Inc., 694 F.2d 957, 959 n. 2 (4 Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2454, 77 L.Ed.2d 1334 (1983); Smith v. University of North Carolina, 632 F.2d 316, 338 (4 Cir.1980). We therefore state the facts in accordance with these principles: 3 G.T. Scott, a real estate developer since 1960, early in 1976 became interested in developing a particular parcel of land in Greenville County, South Carolina, into a multi-family low-income housing complex. During the subsequent two years Scott worked out the arrangements necessary towards building 156 units on the approximately thirteen-acre site, which throughout that time was zoned for multi-family dwellings. As of March 1978, Scott had acquired a purchase option for the land; had put together a partnership to pursue the project; and had obtained the earmarking of federal subsidy funds by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 1 In addition, by the end of 1977, Scott had submitted detailed plans of the proposed apartment complex to the staff of the county planning commission. During January 1978, following what one top planning staff official described as a common unofficial courtesy review of a developer's plans prior to a formal permit application, the county planning commission staff found Scott's project to conform to the then-existing density, dimensional and parking requirements of Sec. 6:14 of the Greenville County Zoning Ordinance applicable to the site. The next step in the development process was therefore the formal application for a building permit. 4 In mid-March 1978, however, Scott began to hear informally of local opposition to his apartment complex proposal. He arranged with Royce J. Carter, then Acting Executive Director of the County Planning Commission, to meet with two of the private defendants (who were leaders of the citizen opposition), a state senator, one of the County Council defendants, and Carter. Some of the private citizens present raised questions about the desirability of housing minority and low-income residents in the designated neighborhood; aside from airing differences, nothing was resolved at the meeting. 5 The next night, March 21, the Greenville County Council held its regularly scheduled meeting, and Scott's development proposal again sparked much debate. At the time of this meeting, Scott's building site was within an area zoned RM for multi-family dwellings such as that proposed by Scott. Consequently, the leaders of the several hundred county residents opposing Scott's plan in attendance at the meeting called on the County Council to rezone the area to R-15, a classification permitting only single family homes. The Council Chairman referred the rezoning matter to the Council's Public Service, Planning and Development Committee. The next day Scott applied for a building permit on the basis of the plans previously reviewed informally. 6 At the same time, the Council committee considering rezoning was formulating a plan to instruct the County Zoning Administrator to direct that the planning commission and other relevant officials halt all processing of building permits for the area in question, i.e., Scott's, which was the only one pending. The committee members, at their March 23 meeting, were informed by Carter that Scott's plans had already been submitted for planning staff review. In addition, the minutes of the meeting show, the county attorney discussed the ministerial roles of the Planning staff and Zoning Administrator. Nonetheless, the committee, acting for the Council, issued its permit freeze order, which was transmitted to lower level officials on March 24. The moratorium on building permits for the area of Scott's project was to continue at least until a planned April 17 hearing on the proposed rezoning. According to Carter's later testimony, this was the only occasion on which he had ever been instructed not to process a designated building permit. 7 One week later Scott filed suit in the Court of Common Pleas for Greenville County seeking an order requiring the issuance of a building permit. Named as defendants were Carter and two other administrative officials. After a hearing before him, Judge Frank Eppes on April 13 issued an order requiring that the permit immediately issue to Scott. Judge Eppes found that a permit normally would have been processed and issued in ten days, and that all necessary reviews had been either satisfactorily completed or waived prior to the time of the court hearing on the matter. He went on to note that under the express terms of the zoning ordinance in existence since May 19, 1970, the County Council was barred from involvement in the issuance of particular permits, concluding that there was no legal basis for the intrusion by the County Council into the zoning certificate and building permit process. 8 An appeal was taken from the ruling by the private defendants in this current action. They were interested landowners in the area who had intervened in the state court suit individually and as representatives of a class of property owners in the vicinity of the proposed apartments. Pursuant to the appeal, the private landowners obtained a Writ of Supersedeas from the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court on April 14--the day after Judge Eppes's order--which again suspended the issuance of the permit. 9 On August 15, 1979, nearly seventeen months after Scott's original application, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the trial judge's order, adopting it verbatim as the majority opinion for the court. Scott v. Carter, 273 S.C. 509, 257 S.E.2d 719 (1979). 2 In the interim between the trial court order and its affirmance, though, Scott's plans had fallen through, due to the pall cast over the project by the uncertainties of the state court litigation. Scott eventually sold his remaining interest in the project and the site for $162,000.00, a sum which he claims only partially offset several hundred thousand dollars in actual expenses and lost profits. He then filed this action.