The family of Mallory Beach have received a $15,000,000 (around £11.5 million) settlement for
Solicitors say that the £11.5 settlement came from the convenience store – Parker’s Corporation – that reportedly sold alcohol to boat driver Paul Murdaugh, also 19 at the time.
The beverages were allegedly purchased using his mother Maggie Murdaugh’s credit card and brother Buster Murdaugh’s ID. His blood alcohol level was later found to be three times the legal limit.
The Murdaugh boat, which was carrying five passengers, crashed into a bridge support at around 2 am on a February evening in South Carolina. Beach went overboard, and her body was found eight days later.
The unfortunate accident and the following devastation were covered in the documentary, Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scan**l.
In June 2021, , before his trial for the boat crash.
Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and son earlier this year and sentenced to life in prison.
‘The Beach family’s fight is not over,’ the Beach’s family solicitor Tabor Vaux told regarding the settlement.
‘The [civil] conspiracy case is alive and active and we look forward to exposing the corruption and the depths to which Parker’s was willing to harass and intimidate the Beaches, trying to diminish their resolve to hold those accountable who contributed to the preventable death of their daughter.’
‘It wasn’t about the money, but that’s a number that represents a level of accountability that they hope would make people who sell alcohol take their responsibility seriously and keep it out of the hands of minors,’ added solicitor Mark Tinsley.
PK Shere, a legal representative for Parker’s, also released a statement.
‘This case was never about that legal and valid sale nor was it about the repeated bad decisions that these young adults made that night.
‘For Mark Tinsley, it was all about using the Murdaughs’ bad actions and the unfair law of joint and several liability in South Carolina to make Parker’s pay for a verdict intended to punish the Murdaughs.’
He added: ‘The application of the joint and several liability law in South Carolina meant that, if Parker’s was found even 1% at fault, it would have paid for the entirety of any verdict rendered against the Murdaugh family.
‘The unfairness of that caused Parker’s insurance carriers to resolve these suits to avoid paying the likely award intended to punish Alex Murdaugh.’
A further $3m (around £2.3m) will be split between the four other passengers on the boat – Anthony Cook, Morgan Doughty, Miley Altman and Connor Cook.
Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scan**l is available to watch on Netflix.
