S.C. Code Ann. § 54-1-40

This is the official text of S.C. Code Ann. § 54-1-40, part of South Carolina’s Code Ann — part of the compiled statutory law of South Carolina, published by the state as "Code Ann." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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SECTION 54-1-40. Criminal liability for unskillful or negligent management of steamboat.

Official statutory text

(A) It is unlawful for the captain, master, or other person having the command or charge of a boat to cause injury to life or limb of another by: (1) the explosion of a boiler of a steamboat; (2) reason of the unskillfulness, mismanagement, or negligence of the person having the charge or command of the boat; or (3) reason of the deficiency or want of any matter or thing necessary and proper for the management or seaworthiness of any such boat. (B) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined in the discretion of the court or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. (C) This section must not be construed to prevent the defendant from showing, at the trial, that the injury arose from unavoidable accident or without fault on his part and this section must not be construed to restrict the liability of a person convicted under any other law. Effect of Amendment The 1993 amendment rewrote this section so as to change the maximum term of imprisonment to conform to the classification established for each offense.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.