COLUMBIA, S.C. — Suspended Hampton attorney Alex Murdaugh said he does not owe any money to the heirs of his former deceased housekeeper because they have already been more than compensated for the $4.3 million they say they lost, according to a response filed in Hampton County Wednesday.
In a three-page response to a Hampton County lawsuit filed by the sons of Gloria Satterfield, Murdaugh argued that because Satterfield’s heirs have already received more than $6 million in settlements, Murdaugh doesn’t owe the heirs any money. Satterfield died in 2018 after a fall at Murdaugh’s house.
“South Carolina law prohibits plaintiffs from obtaining a double recovery for the same injury,” the filing said.
The response, filed by Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, also asks a judge to either dismiss the claims against Murdaugh or suspend the lawsuit until the criminal case against Murdaugh is finished.
Murdaugh was arrested by the S.C. Law Enforcement Division in mid-October and charged with embezzling $4.3 million from the Satterfield heirs. He is being held in jail without bond on that charge.
“Courts have the inherent power to stay civil litigation where there is a simultaneous criminal proceeding,” Murdaugh’s motion said.
A month before the criminal charges were filed, Satterfield’s heirs named Murdaugh as the main defendant in an alleged scheme to siphon off $4.3 million in insurance proceeds that resulted from Satterfield’s death.
Murdaugh is the only defendant left in the civil case. The others have all paid, or agreed to pay, more than $6 million to settle claims against them, according to the heirs’ lawyers.
Eric Bland, an attorney who with Ronnie Richter represents the Satterfield heirs, said Wednesday he was astonished that Murdaugh now claims settlements by other parties in the case let him off the hook. “You mean Alex Murdaugh gets to keep stolen money because the heirs were so dogged in making other people pay?”
Bland added, “This motion says, ‘Yes my guy may have stolen the money, but I’m declaring the Satterfields are paid in full because somebody else paid the obligation, and therefore my guy (Murdaugh) gets to keep the stolen funds. Think about how tone deaf and arrogant that is.”
Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriot, Satterfield’s sons, sued Murdaugh Sept. 15 and accused him and others of diverting a multimillion-dollar death settlement away from the two heirs and into a fake bank account Murdaugh controlled.
As of this week, five entities allegedly involved with Murdaugh’s scheme have already settled with the Satterfields for more than $6 million: Beaufort lawyer Cory Fleming; his former law firm, Moss Kuhn & Fleming; Palmetto State Bank; Palmetto State Bank Vice President Chad Westendorf; and Murdaugh’s former law firm, Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED). None has admitted fault in the matter.
Because the Satterfields have already received more than $6 million in settlement money, their only claim against Murdaugh is for punitive damages, the response said. Punitive damages, the response said, are intended to punish the wrongdoer and deter him from engaging in similar actions.
The criminal charges against Murdaugh have the same purpose, the response said.
“As a result, a stay of this civil lawsuit is in the best interests of judicial economy and will not interfere with [the Satterfields’] interest in an expeditious recovery (which has already been obtained),” Murdaugh’s response said. “Furthermore, the public interest will best be served staying this civil lawsuit, and allowing the criminal prosecution to proceed without interference.”
Murdaugh’s Satterfield scheme
In their lawsuit, Bland and Richter detailed how Murdaugh orchestrated a death settlement for the two Satterfield sons and had Cory Fleming, a lawyer friend, write checks to Murdaugh’s sham bank account with millions of dollars from the settlement. The money came from insurance policies that Murdaugh had on his house, where Satterfield’s fall happened.
Satterfield was the Murdaugh family’s housekeeper for more than 20 years.
Last month, using information revealed from the Satterfield civil lawsuit, SLED charged Murdaugh with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s office are also investigating Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes, according to attorneys Bland and Griffin.
Murdaugh faces an onslaught of criminal and civil allegations that began shortly after his wife, Maggie, and their younger son, Paul, were found shot to death in early June at their Colleton County homestead. No one has been arrested in that case.
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