Sloan loses standing to sue DOT over three projects

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Sloan filed three separate actions charging that the Carolina Bays Parkway in Horry County, the widening of Highway 170 in Beaufort County and construction of the Cooper River Bridge violated statutory bonding and competitive bidding requirements. Sloan asked the court to stop the projects.

A trial court in Richland County sided with the DOT on the issues, but allowed Sloan to proceed with his court action "because of the great public importance of the matters raised."

The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling in favor of the DOT, and reversed the lower court on Sloan's standing to bring the lawsuit.

The court cited the fact that none of the companies whose bids were rejected joined the lawsuit, in rejecting Sloan's standing to bring the lawsuit.

"This is not the last word," said James Carpenter, Sloan's attorney.

Carpenter said he'll ask the Court of Appeals for a new hearing on the case, and if that effort fails, he'll appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

Sloan must win standing to file the lawsuit in order to pursue the merits of the case, Carpenter said.

"They did not deal with the issues on their merits; they dealt only with the standing issue. I continue to believe we are right on the merits, that this request for proposals is not an invitation for bids. A bid is not a proposal, and the statute only allows bids," Carpenter said.

"We think it's an important issue because we're spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on these projects," Carpenter said.