S.C. Couple Seeks to Hold Insurance Co., TV Station Liable for Slander

A couple that has won multiple lawsuits over a smear campaign by a former television station news director has sued the former owner of the station looking to collect a judgment won against the company’s former employee.

Christopher and Elizabeth Murphy won a $9 million verdict in 2003 against former WCSC news director Donald Feldman, who falsely accused Elizabeth Murphy of slandering another attorney eight years ago. But they have gotten nothing from that judgment as Feldman was in federal prison for embezzling $2.5 million from the station.

Now the Murphys are seeking to hold Jefferson-Pilot Communications and Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. liable for that judgment against Feldman that the couple claims is now worth $14 million with interest, according to a report in The (Charleston) Post and Courier.

Representatives from Liberty Mutual and Lincoln Financial Group, which bought Jefferson-Pilot in 2006, would not comment on the lawsuit.

In September, the Murphys were awarded $4 million in their lawsuit against WCSC and Jefferson-Pilot Communications, saying Feldman was acting as an agent of the station when he slandered Elizabeth Murphy in 1999.

In the current lawsuit, the Murphys say the companies are liable for the judgment against Feldman because he was covered by a liability insurance policy that Liberty Mutual issued to WCSC employees.

Information from: The Post and Courier,
http://www.charleston.net