Attorneys for a South Carolina comfort retailer chain argued this week that it shouldn’t be held responsible for Paul Murdaugh’s booze-fueled 2019 boat crash that took the lifetime of a 19-year-old lady.
The Parker’s Company – which operates the comfort retailer the place Murdaugh was seen buying alcohol underage earlier than the collision – was represented on Wednesday at a listening to within the wrongful dying go well with filed on behalf of the household of Mallory Seashore, who was killed within the Feb. 24 accident.
Attorneys for Parker’s argued that Paul, then 19, “defrauded” the shop when he bought the drinks with a legitimate South Carolina Driver’s License, WIS mentioned.
The legal professionals additionally identified that the South Carolina Legislation Enforcement Division (SLED) didn’t cost the shop with promoting alcohol to a minor.
“Tragic occasions happen, and they’re most unlucky,” attorneys for Parker’s wrote within the court docket submitting.
“However we mustn’t ever flip away from the reality. The reality is that Parker’s was not negligent as a result of there is no such thing as a proof to help the place that Parker’s knowingly bought alcohol to a minor.”
Paul, then 19, was caught on surveillance footage buying alcohol from a Parker’s location together with his older brother Buster’s ID simply hours earlier than he drunkenly crashed his motor boat right into a piling of the Archers Creek Bridge, WCSC reported.
All the passengers have been ejected from the vessel – however solely Seashore didn’t return to shore. Her physique was discovered seven days later.
The Parker’s authorized staff additionally argued that Seashore and the opposite passengers on Paul’s boat assumed sure dangers after they knowingly boarded the vessel after an evening of heavy ingesting.
“The undisputed details present that the plaintiff should have data of the details constituting a harmful situation, that harmful situation being getting on a ship with no lights, no life jacket, on a chilly, foggy evening with somebody who you already know has had a historical past of ingesting in extra and making a choice are you going to get on that boat or evening?” lead lawyer P.Ok. Shere mentioned.
Representatives for Seashore’s household, nevertheless, argued that the underage passengers didn’t have the power to make knowledgeable choices and couldn’t assume the dangers.
Decide Daniel Corridor will rule on whether or not or to not dismiss the go well with towards Parker’s someday earlier than Could 26 because the case prepares for a jury trial, WIS mentioned.
The proceedings over Seashore’s dying are the most recent in the continuing saga of the Murdaugh household, the Low Nation authorized dynasty that has dominated nationwide headlines for nearly two years.
Paul Murdaugh and his mom, Maggie, have been executed on the household’s Moselle looking lodge in June 2021. His father, Alex Murdaugh, was convicted of their murders earlier this yr.
Alex, 54, can be named as a defendant within the Seashore wrongful dying go well with.
On the time of his dying, Paul was dealing with three felony counts associated to the accident. Alex Murdaugh additionally testified in court docket that his son acquired a number of dying threats within the wake of the Seashore’s dying.
Seashore’s father, Phillip, was current in Colleton County court docket when the disgraced lawyer was sentenced to 2 consecutive life phrases for killing his spouse and son.
Whereas he declined to talk to Alex’s brother after the proceedings, he did inform an area outlet that “justice has been served.”
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