Court OKs eight-figure judgment against Murdaugh

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Alex Murdaugh now faces a $14.8 million judgment after a false insurance claim was submitted in the death of his housekeeper, and the settlement was misappropriated.

A Jan. 2 order from federal District Judge Richard Gergel was issued just before the connected civil trial began in Charleston involving Nautilus, Murdaugh’s insurer, The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston reported.

Nautilus sued Murdaugh and others in April 2022, alleging it paid on false pretenses the claim in the February 2018 death of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper, at their hunting lodge in Colleton County. Satterfield died after a fall.

Murdaugh had told Satterfield’s sons that they should sue him for wrongful death and that they would receive more than enough to cover their mother’s medical bills.

The sons, however, never received any money, the newspaper reported. The now-disbarred lawyer stole the resulting $4.3 million settlement.

Murdaugh also is serving consecutive life sentences in state prison for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and younger son Paul in June 2021, and was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and almost 30 years in state prison after pleading guilty to more than 120 federal and state counts, The Post and Courier reported.