Tex McIver (left), seated with defense attorney Don Samuel (AP pool photo: Bob Andres/AJC)

The lawyer who sued Atlanta attorney and convicted killer Claud "Tex" McIver on behalf of the estate of his dead wife has confidentially settled a wrongful death suit with McIver and his insurers.

Robin Frazer Clark, who represents the administrator of Diane McIver's estate, confirmed the confidential settlement Wednesday. The settlement resolves a wrongful death claim Clark brought against McIver on behalf of his dead wife's estate in 2018 after McIver was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Clark said the McIvers' insurance policy had a $10 million policy ceiling and that she sought that full amount. "I am confident we would have proven that the economic value alone of Diane's life was over $20 million, and that's a small part of the value of someone's life," she said. "The true value of someone's life is the non-economic value."

Diane McIver was the president of Corey Enterprises in Atlanta when her husband, then a partner at the Atlanta offices of Fisher & Phillips, fatally shot her from the backseat of their SUV as family friend Dani Jo Carter was driving them home from a weekend at their Putnam County ranch in 2016. 

Clark sued McIver on behalf of estate administrator Mary Margaret Oliver. Oliver was appointed by the Fulton County Probate Court as the estate administrator after McIver was charged with his wife's murder and removed as her estate executor. Diane McIver has no surviving children or family.

Carter also was named as a defendant in the wrongful death suit. Clark said negligence claims brought against Carter were dismissed as part of the estate's settlement with McIver's insurers.

But during the litigation, Carter filed a cross-claim against Tex McIver which is still pendingl Efforts to mediate the dispute so far have failed, Clark said. Carter's attorney, Lee Davis, couldn't be reached for comment.

Clark said the global settlement also resolves a separate federal declaratory judgment action that McIver's insurers, Chubb National Insurance and Great Northern Insurance, filed after McIver was convicted, that sought relief from any obligation to defend McIver against the wrongful death claim asserted by Diane McIver's estate.

Clark said that she and the insurance companies' counsel entered into mediation after the Georgia Court of Appeals in a case of first impression last year affirmed a lower court ruling that Diane McIver's estate could sue the spouse who killed her.

James Scarbrough of Atlanta's Mabry & McClelland, who represented Tex McIver and his insurers, couldn't be reached for comment.

Clark said that the estate's wrongful death claim was bolstered by a provision of the couple's insurance policy that included coverage where a spouse was injured in an accident where the other spouse was driving and found to have negligently caused the injury. Clark said she secured an admission from Tex McIver "that he negligently killed his wife." McIver has always insisted that he never intended to shoot his spouse and that the gun he was holding discharged accidentally.

"Tex admitted every allegation in the [wrongful death] complaint," she said.

Although the jury that heard the murder case against McIver rejected his defense that the shooting was accidental, Clark said McIver's insurers contended the lawyer's murder conviction solidified their position that Diane McIver's death wasn't covered by the insurance policy's accident provisions.

But Clark said she insisted she would try the wrongful death case if no satisfactory settlement deal was reached.

She also said she assured the insurance company lawyers that she would use Tex McIver's own statements to seek a judgment on the pleadings.  "Once I won judgment on the pleadings,  the only issue for the jury would have been the full value of the life of Diane McIver," she said.  "We never got to that point."

Greg Land contributed to this article.