Convenience store settles Mallory Beach boat death lawsuit for $15 million

Mallory Beach/FILE

Courtesy: National Center For Missing And Endangered/Mallory Beach

HAMPTON, SC (WCIV) — An attorney for the family of Mallory Beach confirms a settlement for $15 million has been reached with Parker’s Kitchen convenience store magnate Greg Parker in connection with the 2019 boat wreck that claimed Beach’s life.

Beach family attorney Mark Tinsley confirmed details of the settlement agreement Sunday evening to News 4’s Anne Emerson and Drew Tripp.

“There’s a certain amount of celebration and vindication,” Tinsley said in a phone call Sunday. Speaking on the family’s behalf, he said the $15 million settlement represents a level of accountability that hopefully causes others to take notice and become more serious about not contributing to underage drinking.

Parker’s attorney PK Shere released a statement saying it is “disappointing” details of the settlement were disclosed today, indicating case parties agreed to confidentiality during the mediation agreement.

Both Shere and Tinsley confirm this settlement will function as a “global resolution” of all claims against Parker’s by the Beaches and other boat crash victims, effectively ending the cases. The lawsuit had been scheduled for a jury trial beginning August 14 in Hampton County. The settlement means the trial will not happen.

“We sincerely hope that all involved parties will find some measure of closure,” Shere said.

Mallory Beach died in a February 2019 boat crash in Beaufort County when she was thrown overboard in a collision with a bridge piling after a night of partying with five other friends. Others on the boat testified Paul Murdaugh, son of prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, was driving the boat.

The Beach family sued Alex Murdaugh for wrongful death after the deadly boat crash, claiming Alex and Maggie Murdaugh had supported and funded Paul Murdaugh’s underage drinking for years, and knowingly allowed Paul — only 19 at the time — to drunkenly operate the family’s boat the night of the crash.

Paul Murdaugh reportedly used his mother’s credit card and his older brother Buster’s driver’s license to illegally purchase alcohol underage from a Parker’s store in the town of Okatie hours before the boat crash on February 23, 2019. Accordingly, the Beach family also sued Greg Parker and his Parker’s Kitchens company for contributing to Mallory’s death.

The Beaches argued a Parker’s employee who sold the alcohol to Paul Murdaugh did not do her due diligence to confirm Paul’s age and identity. If she had, the tragedy could’ve been avoided. Their lawsuit further accused the Parker’s company of negligence for not properly training the employee to verify customer ages during alcohol purchases.

Parker and his attorneys ardently fought the lawsuit, claiming along the way they bore no responsibility for the decisions of Mallory Beach or any other boat crash victim for staying on the boat that night when they well knew Paul Murdaugh was too drunk to drive, and had multiple opportunities to get off the boat.

“This settlement represents exoneration of everyone in the boat that night,” Tinsley said. “Parker spent lot of time and energy condemning everyone involved. The sad part of it is we’ve always been willing to be reasonable.”

Parker’s further argued their employee did nothing wrong and followed the letter of the law the night Paul Murdaugh illegally bought beer from the Parker’s store in Okatie, repeatedly pointing to the fact state police investigating the boat crash declined to cite or charge the employee or Parker’s as a business.

Attorneys for Parker tried unsuccessfully several times to have themselves separated from Alex Murdaugh as defendants in the case, and even tried to have the case tried elsewhere instead of Hampton County. Judge Daniel Hall denied those motions.

Shere framed the judge’s decisions as leaving Parker’s with no option other than settling, and used the outcome as a pulpit to criticize the “unfairness” of South Carolina’s joint and several liability laws in civil court cases.

Joint and several liability means any defendant that contributed to the victim’s injury in a civil case can be held liable for the full amount of damages, even if one party was more directly responsible than another.

“(This case) 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,” Shere said.

A recent court filing on the issue of “privileged materials” in the Beach case listed communications among Parker’s representatives about their efforts to garner support for changing joint and several liability laws in South Carolina. A 2021 S.C. House bill aimed at doing exactly that has failed to gain traction.

Shere has made clear the Parker camp believes Murdaugh should bear the brunt of the financial damages, not Parker. However, because of the court’s rulings in the case, Shere says Parker’s insurance companies (which will pay the settlement, not Parker) felt the best option was to settle the lawsuit.

Parker’s insurance providers felt they were at of risk having to pay even more than $15 million if the case went before a jury, Shere added.

“Given the outsized publicity this case has received, being tethered to a convicted murderer all but ensured Parker’s would not receive a fair trial,” said Shere.

The vehemence with which Parker and his attorney fought the lawsuit — something Tinsley attributes to Parker’s ego — ultimately sparked a second lawsuit by Tinsley and the Beach family claiming Parker was behind a smear campaign against them meant to intentionally inflict emotional distress.

The second lawsuit, which is still pending in Hampton County, alleges Parker and his legal team went so far as to intentionally release to the public confidential investigation photos that showed Mallory Beach’s dead body.

Tinsley said Sunday the Beach family fully intends to pursue judgment against Parker for that and other grievances against the family, along with two of Parker’s attorneys and two private investigators.

“It was such a despicable and vile thing, the lengths (Parker and his associates) went to terrorize a family just trying to seek accountability,” Tinsley said. “The one thing the Beaches have been most consistent about with this settlement is still going after Greg Parker.”

Meantime, Tinsley says attorneys for Alex Murdaugh — the second primary defendant in the boat crash lawsuit — were aware of settlement discussions involving Parker. Tinsley does not expect Murdaugh’s camp to contest the settlement nor any future rulings in the case.

Tinsley says it will be up to the court to decide how much of Alex Murdaugh’s seized money and proceeds of he and his late wife’s assets eventually will be divided among the boat crash victims.

Tinsley says all the money court-appointed marshals of Murdaugh’s finances can get their hands on has been recovered and accounted for. However, parts of Maggie Murdaugh’s estate are still pending in probate, Tinsley explained.

Once that process is complete, the combined money from her estate and Alex’s assets will be allocated proportionally among Murdaugh’s victims and debtors. Given how many people Murdaugh victimized and general debts he owed, it’s unlikely the settlement proceeds from Murdaugh in the boat crash case would’ve come remotely close to the multimillion-dollar result of the Parker’s settlement.

“It’s sort of like bankruptcy. Everything he has left, we’ve taken,” Tinsley said, speaking for those with claims against Murdaugh and his wife’s estate. Tinsley added that Murdaugh’s lawyers have previously waived their right to appeal any decisions by the court regarding the divvying of Murdaugh’s assets.

Alex Murdaugh is currently serving two life prison sentences for murdering his son, Paul, and his own wife, Maggie, in June 2021.

State prosecutors at Murdaugh’s trial argued Murdaugh murdered them as part of a heinous ruse to avoid discovery of massive fraud and money laundering schemes sure to come to light in financial audits accompanying the Beach family’s lawsuit over the boat crash.

There’s a pending investigation into Alex Murdaugh for obstruction of justice related to the Beach boat crash death case. Tinsley and others believe there’s evidence Murdaugh and his father, a former circuit solicitor, tried to derail the case against his son in the weeks and months following the boat crash.