Lawsuit Claims Lake Murray Docks Built with Defective Wood

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The owners of several docks on Lake Murray in South Carolina allege the treated wood products used to build the docks are defective and have failed or begun to fail prematurely. 

The 13-page amended suit says the waterfront docks were built with wood products provided by Cox Industries, who used chemicals supplied by Arch Chemicals to treat the wood. According to the case, the docks have splintered, lost strength and structural integrity, deteriorated and/or rotted through completely, or are in the process of doing so, due to the defendants’ defective wood products. 

Overall, the wooden docks are unusable, unsafe and in a condition unsuitable for their intended purpose, the case alleges. Per the complaint, the premature failure of the Lake Murray docks stems from a “latent defect” that could not be discovered until the wood began to rot. 

The plaintiffs include individual citizens and a South Carolina realty company who owns a wooden dock with 65 boat slips on Lake Murray, a reservoir with roughly 650 miles of shoreline. According to the filing, the plaintiffs either contracted and paid for new waterfront docks to be built at their properties using Cox Industries wood or bought property that already had a dock in place. 

The case argues that the defendants “have known, or should have known,” about the apparently defective condition of the wooden docks and failed to disclose this information to dock owners. As a result, the lawsuit says, the plaintiffs and similarly situated parties will have to spend significant money to replace the docks, including costs related to demolition, repair designs, and the loss of the use of the docks.

The suit looks to represent all persons and entities who have owned a wooden dock in South Carolina built using Cox and Arch Chemicals-treated wood products from January 1, 2010 to the present.

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