Could a $15M settlement in the Mallory Beach case change the law in SC? [The State]

A $15 million settlement in a lawsuit over the the 2019 boat crash death of Mallory Beach could have implications for South Carolina’s personal injury and wrongful death law that at least one lawmaker has sought to change in recent years.

Gregory Parker, owner of Parker’s Kitchen convenience stores and one of several defendants accused of causing the death of Mallory Beach — a 19-year-old who died in a 2019 Lowcountry boat crash — agreed to pay the Beach family $15 million to settle its role in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Parker was named as a defendant alongside Alex Murdaugh, father of 19-year-old Paul Murdaugh, who was accused of drunkenly piloting and crashing the boat in the accident that killed Beach. Beach’s family, along with other passengers on the boat, filed civil lawsuits against Parker and Murdaugh, who is now behind bars for the 2021 murders of his son Paul and his own wife, Maggie. Parker had asked to be tried separately from Murdaugh as defendants, because Parker feared Murdaugh would drag Parker down and force Parker to bear the full financial weight of any verdict. A judge, however, rejected Parker’s motion to sever himself from Murdaugh.

In agreeing to settle the lawsuit, which was to be tried Aug. 14, Parker did not legally admit fault.

While the settlement, which came on Sunday, marks the close of a years-long battle over who was to blame in Beach’s death, debate surrounding the matter may continue in the S.C. State House.

That’s because South Carolina Senate Majority Leader and insurance defense lawyer Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, wants to change the way defendants are penalized for their involvement in personal injury and wrongful death cases.

Massey’s push to amend South Carolina’s joint and several liability law — a rule that generally governs cases involving personal injury or wrongful death — began in 2019 following the death of Beach, who in February of that year was thrown from a boat and drowned.

The law essentially says that while multiple defendants can be sued in cases where the plaintiff was wrongfully injured or died, such as in the Beach case, monetary damages could ultimately fall entirely on just one defendant based on percentages of fault determined by a judge or jury. Percentages of fault can only apply to named defendants in a case.

In cases where a person wrongfully dies involving the use of alcohol, a defendant who is found to be only 1% responsible could be forced to pay the entire verdict — a consequence some lawmakers, such as Massey, say is grossly unfair.

“Nobody should be responsible for more than the damage that person causes,” Massey told investigative news site The Nerve last year. “If I cause injury to somebody else, I should be responsible, but I should be responsible only for what I caused, not for what someone else caused.”

But longtime South Carolina personal injury attorney Robert Goings says the law is exactly how it should be.

“With all due respect to Sen. Massey, he is an insurance defense lawyer, and he’s paid by the insurance industry, and that (proposal) would benefit his clients,” Goings said. That bill “would severely hinder citizens from receiving any type of justice due to the acts of drunk drivers, or other malicious or intentional conduct.”

Indeed, the potential financial consequences of a jury verdict Parker could have faced under the current law prompted the settlement, according to Parker’s lawyers.

Murdaugh, who is serving two consecutive life sentences in prison, is believed to have few, if any, assets with which to pay damages that could have been awarded in a jury trial.

“That law would have required Parker to pay the entire amount of any damages awarded the Beach family, even if (Parker) was found ... one percent at fault,” said P.K. Shere, Parker’s lead attorney, in a statement to The State. “The unfairness of that caused Parker’s insurance carriers to resolve these suits to avoid paying the likely award intended to punish Alex Murdaugh,” Shere wrote.

Also under current law, a defendant accused of causing the injury or death of someone that doesn’t involve the use of alcohol or drugs must be found at least 51% at fault before being stuck with paying the entire verdict, and only named defendants can be held liable for the verdict.

Not only would Massey’s proposal, which he has reintroduced twice since 2019, modify how a defendant’s liability is determined in tort cases, but it would also allow liability to attach to persons or entities potentially responsible though not a party to the lawsuit.

So far, Massey has been unsuccessful in getting his measure to the Senate floor even with support from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, which has named tort reform as a key legislative priority in its competitiveness agenda for the past two years.

Whether the Beach settlement will do anything to shift tort law in South Carolina remains unseen.

Efforts by The State to reach Massey for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

Regardless, the Beach case is closed after four years of negotiations, and no future change in the law could affect Parker’s agreement to fork over $15 million.

Lawyers for the Beach family alleged that Paul Murdaugh was intoxicated while driving the boat Beach was thrown from, and that Alex and Maggie Murdaugh knew or should have known that Paul had a propensity to drink and act irresponsibly. Paul’s older brother, Buster, was blamed for allegedly allowing his underage brother to use his ID to buy alcohol.

Parker was named as a defendant in the Beach suit because one of his clerks at Parker’s Kitchen sold beer to the underage Paul before the boat crash.

Besides Paul and Alex Murdaugh, other original defendants in the Beach suit included Buster Murdaugh, the estate of Maggie Murdaugh and Parker. Buster and Maggie’s estate, however, were later dropped from the case earlier this year following a settlement, which left Alex Murdaugh and Parker to stand trial in August, until the news of Sunday’s settlement.

Lawsuits brought by four other passengers on the boat were also settled Sunday after an hours-long session at a law office on Daniel Island, lawyers said.

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