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Alex Murdaugh Asks Court To Vacate $4.3M Judgement for Dead Housekeeper’s Family
Murdaugh’s lawyers have asked a judge to toss out the $4.3 million legal decision since the claims were approved by insurance companies based on the false claims Murdaugh had made about his pet dogs tripping housekeeper Gloria Satterfield.
Lawyers for convicted killer and disgraced legal scion Alex Murdaugh are requesting the court vacate a $4.3 million confession of judgement in the suit brought forth by the family of his late longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died on his property more than half a decade ago.
Satterfield’s family previously accused Murdaugh of coming to them following her death and recommending they sue him, in order to secure a settlement that the South Carolina lawyer’s insurance companies, Nautilus and Lloyd’s of London, would pay out.
RELATED: Alex Murdaugh ‘Invented’ Story about Dogs' Involvement in Housekeeper’s 2018 Death
Instead, however, Murdaugh, 54, allegedly swindled the $4.3 million insurance payout for himself. Satterfield’s sons, Tony Satterfield and Brian Harriot, later took legal action against Murdaugh after they never received any payment from the claim Murdaugh filed.
Gloria Satterfield died under suspicious circumstances at Murdaugh’s estate in February 2018 after she allegedly suffered a deadly “trip and fall” down a flight of stairs at the Murdaugh family’s hunting estate. She died several weeks later in hospital.
The insurance company Nautilus is currently suing Murdaugh for alleged insurance fraud related to multiple false narratives he spun regarding details surrounding Satterfield’s death.
Murdaugh, though, has refuted “the existence of any conspiracy to improperly cause Nautilus to pay a fraudulent claim,” federal court documents allege.
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Earlier this month, Murdaugh admitted in legal filings that he’d lied to investigators about his housekeeper's death, confessing that he’d made up a story blaming the family’s dogs for her fatal fall.
“No dogs were involved in the fall of Gloria Satterfield on February 2, 2018,” Murdaugh’s attorneys stated in federal court documents cited by ABC News. “After Ms. Satterfield’s death, Defendant invented Ms. Satterfield’s purported statement that dogs caused her fall to force his insurers to make a settlement payment, and he stated that she was not on the property to perform work.”
Murdaugh’s defense lawyers have since asked a judge to toss out the $4.3 million legal decision since the claims were approved by the insurance companies in question based on the false claims Murdaugh had made about his pet dogs tripping Satterfield. Because of this, they argue, Satterfield’s family aren’t owed any funds from the alleged fraud.
“It is unlikely Bank of America would have paid a substantial amount to the Satterfield family had it known the Satterfield family was not entitled to the money deposited into Mr. Murdaugh’s fake Forge account,” Murdaugh’s lawyers, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin wrote in newly filed court records, according to Law&Crime.
According to the latest motion, however, Murdaugh also confessed he intentionally deceived Tony Satterfield in carrying out the insurance fraud scheme.
Eric Bland, an attorney representing Satterfield's family, blasted the latest motion as “legal toilet paper,” according to Law & Crime. He described Murdaugh as a “a thief and a liar.”
Murdaugh was found guilty in March of this year in the 2021 slayings of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and youngest son, Paul Murdaugh. He was later sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility for parole. Murdaugh’s lawyers have indicated they plan to appeal the sentence. He’s long denied carrying out the double murder.
