Billie Harding told the congregation of Maranatha Fellowship Church last month her husband's prayers had been answered.
During a service at Maranatha on Dec. 11, Chad and Billie Harding, who own Poca-based Gatens-Harding Funeral Home, both spoke about the fallout from lawsuits filed against them over their handling of the funeral home. A video of the service was posted online. It has since been removed from the church's Facebook and YouTube accounts.
The Hardings were ordered in 2016 to pay nearly $3 million to an Iowa-based insurance company for cashing in on funeral contracts for people who weren't actually dead.
"I have a sign on my fridge that says, 'you don't have the potential for a miracle until you're in over your head.' Well, we were in over our head," Billie Harding said during the December church service.
"Chad prayed, 'God, wake up a millionaire to help us' - and he did that," she told the congregation.
Two days after the service at Maranatha, on Dec. 13, lawyers for the insurance company filed notice that the judgment against the Hardings had been "sold, transferred and assigned" from Homesteaders Life Insurance Co. to Clay Holding Company LLC, of Belle.
In other words, the Hardings no longer owed the insurance company $2.8 million, but instead, area businessman, Tommy Clay, is to be reimbursed for the judgment.
Clay is listed as the sole member and organizer of the business, which was registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State's office on Dec. 6.
Clay owns more than 30 businesses registered with the secretary of state's office. He did not return messages last week requesting comment about his interest in the funeral home.
Clay and Billie Harding could not be reached for comment.
For nearly a decade, between 2005 and 2013, the Hardings cashed in on about $900,000 worth of pre-need funeral contracts for 111 people who weren't dead.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers, in Huntington, ordered the couple in August to pay nearly $2.8 million to Homesteaders Life - that's three times what they bilked from the company, as damages can be tripled under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Chambers granted the insurance company default judgment, after the funeral home's owners and their Scott Depot lawyer, Jeff Woods, failed to respond to court orders and comply with court rules.
Woods initially responded to the lawsuit and denied its allegations, but then he never filed anything else in the case until Chambers gave the Hardings notice to dispute a default judgment order.
Woods wrote to the judge asking that the Hardings not be required to pay the insurance company's expenses. He argued other litigation against the couple, as well as discussions regarding the initiation of proceedings to suspend or revoke Chad Harding's license as a mortician, along with a potential criminal investigation against Chad Harding, made participating in the case involving Homesteaders difficult.
"Tacitly, Defendants have refused to participate in almost every part of this case, which is based on fraud in the funeral home business," Chambers wrote in his order.
He denied Woods' motion and ordered the couple to pay about $69,000 in attorney's fees for the insurance company.
Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia said in August he would "not contradict" Woods' statement that Chad Harding is the target of a potential criminal investigation. No criminal allegations have been filed against Chad Harding.
Alex Macia, a lawyer for the insurance company, said last Friday Homesteaders is satisfied with leaving further action regarding the judgment up to Clay.
Homesteaders "is not in the business of collecting judgments. It's in the business of providing funeral home benefits to consumers," Macia said.
During the same service at Maranatha, the Hardings also discussed another lawsuit filed against them because of the pre-need contracts.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office filed suit last year against the Hardings in Kanawha County Circuit Court, claiming the funeral home's actions violated the state's Consumer Credit and Protection Act and the state Funeral Contracts Act.
"I was sitting in the attorney general's office the other day, man it started to go south," Chad Harding said. "I didn't even know I was going to be there. I walked in there, I thought, for an hour meeting, I was in there for over eight and a half hours. Talk about my head about to come off.
"Jesus showed up the 11th hour," he continued. "I walked out of there, and the media reported I was to pay a $2 million fine. I walked out of there just having to reimburse them for expenses. Praise God, praise God."
There are no media accounts of settlement negotiations involving the Hardings and Morrisey's office.
Curtis Johnson, a spokesman for Morrisey's office, confirmed in an emailed statement to the Gazette-Mail last week there is a pending settlement agreement between the attorney general and Chad and Billie Harding.
"We will reserve full comment until any agreement is finalized and announced," Johnson wrote. "Final terms of that agreement remain subject to negotiation and therefore limit further comment. We believe consumers will be made whole and our office will be contacting those impacted."
Billie Harding told the Maranatha congregation she was in Israel when her husband contacted her with the good news.
"I got the word that all is well with the attorney general's office. I knew it, I knew it," she said. "It's amazing how God has connected the dots."
Reach Kate White at 304-348-1723
kate.white@wvgazettemail.com
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