Facing mounting legal fees, Columbia pays $5M to settle car wash lawsuit
The city of Columbia has paid the owner of a Five Points car wash $5 million to settle a lawsuit that could have seen the city shell out even more money in legal fees.
Constan Car Wash operated on Gervais Street in Five Points for more than 70 years, but was forced to close in 2022 and was demolished the next year after the city of Columbia removed a retaining wall that car wash owner O. Stanley “Chip” Smith said caused the business to flood beyond repair. His attorney, Dick Harpootlian, made the case in a trial last summer.
In July 2025, circuit court Judge Robert Hood ruled that Columbia was indeed responsible for the business closing and ordered the city to pay Smith $4.2 million plus interest going back to March 2021, when the wall was removed. At the time of the judgment, the city already owed $5.54 million with that interest factored in. Columbia leaders initially said they would appeal the verdict. That also meant the city was racking up $1,800 a day in interest, bringing what the city could have owed up to nearly $6 million.
But on Tuesday, the city cut a check for $5 million for Smith, settling the lawsuit and ending the legal back and forth.
“This is an extraordinary result,” Harpootlian told The State Wednesday. “Mr. Smith is very satisfied with the $5 million to resolve this matter.”
The State has reached out to the city of Columbia for a comment on the settlement.
A legal back and forth
The legal fight began after the city in 2021 demolished a retaining wall at the Constan Car Wash property that Smith said he built to prevent repeated flooding. Smith said after the wall was removed, the resulting flooding forced the long-standing Five Points business to close in 2022, and the building was later demolished.
After Judge Hood’s July ruling, the city attempted to have the verdict reversed or lowered, arguing in court filings that paying the verdict would have “a direct impact on the City’s budget and its ability to provide essential public services.”
A judge denied the city’s request to have the judgment lowered, but city officials continued to say they would appeal the verdict.
“We plan to appeal this judgment as this is yet another egregious example of the critical need for judicial reform in our state,” Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said at the time, in a statement shared with The State.
As the appeal remained pending, Harpootlian also tried to collect on the judgment by asking for proceeds from the city selling a Washington Street building to Kessler Enterprise for a future hotel project. Harpootlian filed a motion to that effect in February, telling The State, “We’ll do this every time they sell a piece of property.”
Harpootlian Wednesday said he did not know if any of the $5 million settlement came from that property sale.
As part of the settlement deal, the city now owns the Constan Car Wash property, Harpootlian added.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 11:13 AM.
