Sons of Murdaugh Housekeeper Who Died in 'Trip and Fall' Reach Settlement with Estate's Former Lawyers

The sons of the Murdaugh family's longtime housekeeper who purportedly died after a 2018 "trip and fall" accident at their South Carolina home have reached a settlement with a lawyer who had represented them but who'd allegedly withheld money from them, according to their attorneys.

On Friday, an agreement between the estate of Gloria Satterfield, attorney Cory Fleming, his law firm, Moss, Kuhn and Fleming and their insurance carrier was reached "in connection with the pending lawsuit," attorneys Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

"Mr. Fleming and his firm agreed that the Estate will be paid back all legal fees and expenses Mr. Fleming and his law firm received from the $4,300,000 they recovered for the Estate in connection with the claims asserted against Alex Murdaugh for the death of Gloria Satterfield," Bland and Richter said in the statement announced on Sunday night.

"In addition, their malpractice insurance carrier agreed to pay to the Estate their full policy limits of insurance," Bland and Richter said.

"Mr. Fleming stepped forward and did the right thing by the Estate. Mr. Fleming and his law firm maintain, they—like others—were victims of Alex Murdaugh's fraudulent scheme.

"A more comprehensive joint statement from Mr. Fleming, his firm, and the Satterfield Estate will be issued later this week."

Alex Murdaugh Referred Housekeeper's Sons to Their Attorney, New Lawyer Says

On Sept. 15, Bland filed a lawsuit against Alex Murdaugh alleging that after Satterfield died, Murdaugh referred her sons — Michael "Tony" Satterfield and Brian Harriot — to Fleming so they could file a wrongful death claim against him, the lawsuit says.

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Alex Murdaugh had allegedly said that Satterfield died after tripping over his family's dogs, Bland told PEOPLE previously.

"After the funeral, he came up to the two sons and said, 'Hey, look, I'm going to recommend that you go see this attorney Cory Fleming, and he's going to represent you two in the estate and bring claims in connection with your mother's death,'" Bland told PEOPLE previously.

"He doesn't tell the boys, 'Oh, by the way, this is a lawyer that was my best friend, my college roommate," Bland told PEOPLE.

Though a death settlement of $505,000 was approved, Bland told PEOPLE his clients "haven't been paid one dime since this was settled in 2020."

The $505,000 isn't all that Bland alleges his clients never received.

After he filed the Sept. 15 lawsuit on behalf of his clients, Bland said he discovered a missing judge's order approving a $4.3 million settlement.

The documents were signed by a judge, Bland says, but never filed.

According to the Order Approving Settlement filed in 2019 in the Hampton Court of Common Pleas, the sons were supposed to receive $2.765 million of the $4.3 million settlement.

Bland told PEOPLE the amount that Fleming and his law firm would pay back to the sons was confidential.

But in the Order Approving Settlement, it states that $1.435 million of the Settlement went to attorney's fees. It is unclear how much the sons would receive.

Fleming and his law firm were represented by Thomas Pendarvis from the Pendarvis Law Offices, P.C. in Beaufort, S.C., and David Overstreet of Earhart Overstreet in Charleston, S.C.

These attorneys and an attorney for Murdaugh did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Bland and Richter's work is not finished, they said in the statement.

"The estate will continue pursuing other culpable parties who resist acceptance of responsibility for their part in this tragic matter," the attorneys wrote.

Authorities Investigating Satterfield's Death

On Sept. 15, the same day Bland filed the lawsuit, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) announced that it was opening an investigation into Satterfield's death.

SLED officials said that a coroner had recently found inconsistencies surrounding Satterfield's death. The incident was not reported to the coroner in 2018, and there was no autopsy performed at the time.

Details of Satterfield's fall have not been disclosed. It's unclear who was at the home at the time of the incident.

A well-known attorney in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Alex Murdaugh came into the national spotlight after he came home on the night of June 7, 2021, to find his wife, Maggie, 52, and youngest son, Paul, 22, shot to death on the grounds of their hunting lodge.

Police are still searching for their killer or killers. They're also trying to unravel the knot of alleged illegal activity, scandal and bizarre behavior centered on Alex Murdaugh that surfaced after the killings.

Since June, Alex Murdaugh has been fired from his job at his family's law firm, accused of embezzlement, shot in the head, gone to rehab for substance abuse and arrested and accused of hiring a hitman to help him commit suicide so his surviving son could cash in on a $10 million life insurance policy.