AIKEN --- The city of Aiken has the law on its side.

Judge Jack Early of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court ruled last month that the South Carolina Department of Transportation has no legal standing on which to contest the city's March 2007 annexation of a nearly three-mile stretch of Whiskey Road from Millbrook Avenue south to Talatha Church Road.

"I find that SCDOT is time-barred ... from contesting any aspect of this annexation because the statute of limitations regarding this matter has run out," Judge Early said in his judgment.

City Manager Roger LeDuc said the judge ruled in early September and the highway department had 30 days to appeal.

The Department of Transportation had refused to recognize the city's annexation of the Whiskey Road right-of-way, claiming it violated state law, and on at least two occasions, city officials say, city limits signs placed near Talatha Church Road were removed by the department.

Since the city passed the annexation ordinance, Aiken Public Safety has been patrolling that section of road.

"From the very beginning, for about the past 15 months, the (South Carolina Department of Public Safety) has called us to handle wrecks out there," Mr. LeDuc said.

Since the annexation, there have been more than 150 collisions on the three-mile stretch of Whiskey Road that Aiken Public Safety has investigated.

About a year after the annexation, the city filed a lawsuit against the highway department, asking the common pleas court to declare the annexation valid and legal.

The city alleged that if the state agency objected to the annexation of Whiskey Road it would have to file a formal objection with the city clerk and the common pleas court within 90 days of the passage of the annexation ordinance.

The Department of Transportation countered with a motion of its own, filed in April, saying that the city's annexation was not legal and that the city's motion should be dismissed.

An April 12, 2007, letter to city officials said that state law does not allow "shoe string" annexation.

"SCDOT rights-of-way can only be annexed when they abut existing municipal boundary," the letter said.

The department also contended that even though no lawsuit challenging the annexation was filed within the 90-day window, the agency can still refuse to recognize an invalid annexation.

The court disagreed.

"This court, therefore, expresses no opinion regarding the legitimacy of this annexation given the state's lack of standing to contest this matter because it is time barred from doing so," the judge's ruling says.

Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com.