insurance expert testifies in Fleming case

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Cory Fleming wrapped up his time on the stand in a federal civil trial, and an insurance adjuster for the company who filed the complaint against him shared her side of the story.

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Cory Fleming is facing accusations of civil conspiracy, negligence, unfair trade practices, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. Nautilus Insurance is bringing the claim against him.

Fleming represented the sons of the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper in a wrongful death insurance claim. Gloria Satterfield died in 2018 from injuries from a fall she suffered on the Murdaugh’s property. A main point of the trial is the insurance claim that the Murdaugh dogs tripped up Satterfield, causing her to fall.

In South Carolina, if a dog causes harm or injury, the owner is strictly responsible. In this case, Alex Murdaugh is the person who says he talked to Gloria Satterfield after her fall, and she said the dog caused her the fall. Murdaugh later admitted he made up the dog story, to secure a claim for Satterfield’s sons, with the intention of stealing it for himself. Murdaugh made these statements on the stand while on trial for the murder of his wife and son.

Nautilus brought complaints against Murdaugh, and a federal judge ordered he pay $14.8 million in damages in his filing for the civil case. Fleming and his law firm are facing similar accusations of defrauding the company.

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The crux of Fleming’s defense is that while he represented Satterfield, he did not know Murdaugh had lied about the reason for the claim and trusted Murdaugh. During his testimony, Fleming said he trusted Murdaugh for a lot of reasons. He recalled they had been friends for a very long time, had worked for his father and was friendly with his wife and kids.

“I thought absolutely with no doubt Alex’s intentions were to take care of the boys because they were on their own,” Fleming said on the stand, referring to Satterfield’s sons, surviving her.

After questioning Fleming, and showing him emails and checks they say imply he was in on an insurance scheme, Nautilus called their own claims adjuster from this situation to the stand.

Amy Miller testified that multiple times during the course of the Satterfield claim against Murdaugh she and colleagues shared gut feelings it was in bad faith, but noted how a gut feeling does not mean anything on paper.

“We can’t call our insurers liars, but we have to investigate,” Miller said.

Miller testified that multiple investigations at the time found no evidence to disprove the dog story, especially since Murdaugh himself was swearing to it as the subject of the claim.

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“I had my doubts about the dog story,” Miller said.

Miller also said there were a few red flags in the case, including the Satterfield sons not attending the mediation hearing. Miller got emotional on the stand describing Murdaugh’s behavior during the mediation saying he slammed his fists on the table and followed her out to the parking lot to tell her to come back inside and make a deal.

Miller touched on if she knew anything about Fleming’s knowledge of the dog story. She said she recalled his testimony that he had essentially heard parts of the story through the grapevine but also said in an email he had not officially heard Murdaugh’s version.

“In my mind, that was deception,” she shared her opinion.

Fleming has pleaded guilty to criminal charges of fraud for how he disbursed the money from this claim, inflating his fees and signing over money to Murdaugh. But, he maintains he did not defraud the company since he knew nothing about the origins of the reason for Satterfield’s fall.

Fleming is not facing any prison time since this is a civil case but could face reimbursement and penalty fees if the jury decides he was involved in any damaging scheme.

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