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285 S.C. 542

331 S.E.2d 351

Creed v. Stokes

Supreme Court of South Carolina

Decided June 10, 1985

Supreme Court of South Carolina · decided 1985-06-10

Applies SC 14 § 14-3-330

Relies on Pelfrey Ex Rel. Associated Railway Contractors, Inc. v. Bank of Greer

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1985-06-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently May 2012

23 state decisions

1201985199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Gregory, Justice:

¶1 Appellant C. W. Stokes appeals in this boundary dispute. The master and trial judge ruled respondents had established title to the disputed property by adverse possession. We affirm.

¶2 Stokes’ only contention is the lower court erred in ordering this matter referred to the master. He correctly contends he had a right to a jury trial since this was a land title dispute. See S. C. Const. Art. I, § 14.

¶3 However, appellant waived his objection to the order of reference. Though he opposed the order, he failed *543 to appeal from it. The order was not interlocutory, and should have been appealed immediately because it affected the mode of trial, a substantial right. S. C. Code Ann. § 14-3-330(2) (1976); Pelfrey v. Bank of Greer, 270 S. C. 691, 244 S. E. (2d) 315 (1978). The order became law of the case once appellant failed to timely appeal.

¶4 The order of the lower court is accordingly,

¶5 Affirmed.

Littlejohn, C. J., and Ness, Harwell and Chandler, J.J., concur.
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