Hey there, Legal Tea Listeners – This is your host, Jenny Rozelle. Welcome back for another episode today – episode 178! Wild that we are rapidly approaching the 200 episode mark. And happy new year, too – a brand new year, 2025, is here. That rhymed and I didn’t mean it to! I wish you all an awesome, healthy, successful, wonderful year ahead. Alrighty … so today is a “current trends” topic where we talk about things going on currently that are relevant and pertinent to my estate and elder law world, and/or maybe things I’ve seen on the news or stumbled across on social media. Well, today’s episode is a sad story … if you recognize the name Samantha Miller from the news and/or online, it’s about her and specifically, how there’s a bit of a story in what happened to Samantha about estate planning. If you don’t immediately recognize her name, Samantha was a young lady (age, 34) and from Charlotte, North Carolina … on April 28, 2023, her wedding night, her and her brand new husband, Aric, were riding on a golf cart-like vehicle back to their rental place after their reception in Folly Beach, South Carolina … when they were struck by another vehicle. It killed Samantha and seriously injured Aric. Like an ABC News article stated, “What was supposed to be the happiest day of Samantha Miller’s life turned to tragedy.”
The driver of the other vehicle, Jamie Komoroski, was, according to ABC News, driving 65 miles per hour in, what was a, 25 miles per hour zone. Jamie’s blood alcohol level was later released to the public … her blood alcohol level was more than three times over the legal limit. Of note, in 2024, more than a year after the accident, Jamie pleaded guilty, RIGHT before her trial was about to begin, and she pleaded guilty to DUI-related charges as well as one count of reckless homicide. So back to shortly after the accident, Aric, Samantha’s brand new husband, filed to become the Personal Representative, or the Executor, of Samantha’s Estate – that happened on May 10, 2023. Then, in October of 2023, Aric filed a wrongful death claim against 1) Jamie, individually, 2) as well as the establishments that served Jamie alcohol the night of the accident, 3) Enterprise, because Jamie was in a rental car of theirs the night of the accident. Of note, also named in the lawsuit was Taco Boy, which was Jamie’s place of employment, but they came out and said that she was not at any type of work event that night.
According to CBS News, a Judge ended up approving a partial settlement in the approximate amount of $1.3 Million Dollars in the wrongful death case. The parties and how much they had to pay were: 1) The Crab Shack at $640,000, 2) The Folly Deli at $320,000, 3) Beach Front Bars/Snapper Jacks at $320,000, 4) Progressive Northern Insurance Company at $75,000, and 5) Enterprise Rent-a-Car at $24,000. So, to clarify, while Jamie was named as a Defendant in the lawsuit, she was not part of this settlement.
Now, you may have noticed I said “PARTIAL” settlement a second ago – that’s because, according to WDBJ News out of Roanoke, Virginia, there could be further settlement agreements made with Jamie, individually, if she has any personal assets to recover from, as well as Taco Boy, her employer – like I said, Taco Boy seems to be standing their ground and saying that they have no fault. That, while she was an employee, according to Count on News 2 out of Charleston, South Carolina, Taco Boy said that “with absolute certainty that she did not set foot in the restaurant nor did any of its employees serve her alcohol at the restaurant on the day of the crash.” So, it’s a bit of a guess, but recovering much, if anything, from Jamie and/or Taco Boy – will likely not be successful. But, we’ll have to wait and see.
After that sizable partial settlement of around $1.3 Million, according to WDBJ News, the total amount that went to Samantha’s Estate, which Aric was the Executor or Personal Representative of, was $863,000. Why, you ask? Well, legal fees, of course – but as WDBJ explains, another, often unknown reason, for the amount of legal fees is because there’s actually a dispute going on in Samantha’s Estate between Aric, her husband, and her mother, Lisa Miller. Yes, you heard that right. Aric’s attorney, Danny Dalton, confirmed this by stating, “The expenses as for the estate of Samantha Miller are a bit higher than you would anticipate. There was an estate dispute that took a significant amount of time and resources.” He was referring to the dispute between Aric and Lisa. If you’re wondering, “What on earth could the husband and mother of the gone-too-soon Samantha be fighting about?” Well, let’s talk about it…
According to WDBJ, in December of 2023, so that is six-ish months following Samantha’s death and two-ish months after Aric filed the wrongful death lawsuit, Lisa intervened in the estate case and attempted to do two things: 1) Lisa requested that the Court replace Aric as Personal Representative/Executor of Samantha’s Estate to be her (Lisa) as the role, and 2) Lisa challenged whether Aric and Samantha were legally married at the time of her death. Various Court documents ended up sharing some very interesting sequence of events – according to WDBJ, some of the Court documents shared that Lisa’s attorneys met with Aric’s attorneys and asked to join the case as co-counsel BEFORE making the argument that the marriage was not legal yet … Aric’s attorneys said they would give Lisa half of anything they received in the wrongful death case. Lisa declined the office, and that’s when Lisa filed in Samantha’s case alleging that the marriage was not legal … and that Aric should not be the Personal Representative/Executor. Within these documents, at some point, Affidavits were completed by two family members who attended the wedding ceremony with a completed marriage license.
When all this started coming out, Lisa shared a statement with the Post and Courier. She said, “Aric and I agreed several times that Sam would want us to do everything together given we’re the two most important people in her life. I never wanted to challenge the validity of the marriage. I never wanted to dishonor Sam. But I feel like Aric is dishonoring my daughter in going against her wishes." Interesting choice of words, huh. I’m not really sure what she means by “dishonoring my daughter in going against her wishes” but I have to wonder if it’s because of money or something from the estate. What we DO know is there’s definitely this dispute happening between Samantha’s widow and mother – and that just really is sad. I mean, regardless of opinion, it’s just awful to not only lose your spouse and daughter, but to then have this type of thing going on when you’re trying to grieve and somehow move on in life.
There hasn’t been too much released since all of this – so, I’m not incredibly certain if there’s still an active dispute between Aric and Lisa. Regardless, I think this case brings up an important point and important reminder – it’s never too early to do an estate plan. Unfortunately, estate planning is not a one-time thing – and the plan SHOULD grow with you and be changed over time. I wish it was not the case … I wish it was a one-time thing, but it’s just not. You know, in a strange way, this case and what happened following Samantha’s death reminds me a bit of the classic Terri Schiavo case – which involved a young lady, who was in a persistent vegetative state and her husband and her parents essentially got into this HUGE fight about whether or not to remove Terri’s feeding tube. As I always say with that case … we got the opinions of so many people of what SHOULD happen with Terri … we knew her husband’s opinion, her parents’ opinion, news anchors’ opinions, various courts’ opinions, etc. etc. And whose opinion were we missing and was the MOST IMPORTANT? Terri’s. Terri’s opinion was missing and was the most important.
In a way, it’s similar to this case and story because we don’t know what Samantha would have wanted if she died too soon, like she did. It was confirmed that Samantha did not have an estate plan, so she died, what is called, intestate – meaning she died without a Last Will and Testament. HAD she done a Will, we would have known who she would want to be in charge as the Personal Representative and Executor, and we would have known who she would have wanted to get her Estate. But we don’t know either – and that’s likely the crux of the fight between Aric and Lisa. In other situations, like say Samantha died naturally, maybe her estate would not have been worth very much and maybe this type of dispute would have never happened. Though, because of the wrongful death suit, there IS money – and as we all know, funky things happen when money is on the table.
So, like I was saying, estate planning is not a one-time thing. In the most ideal world, Samantha would have had some type of estate plan, even if it was a basic Last Will and Testament, to relay what she would have wanted in the event of her death. I know – she was young and getting married, but tragic and untimely deaths do not care if you are young nor if you are married. Life is precious and sometimes, we are sadly and tragically reminded me that – like here in this case. So, in an ideal world, Samantha would have had a Will to relay her wishes … in an ideal world, she would have survived her wedding night and likely updated her estate plan following the wedding at some point … and if her and Aric had kids, likely would have updated again … and when she retired, an update again, etc. You get my point. Your estate plan should grow and evolve with you – even if “you” means you are a young, young adult.
Alrighty, let’s wrap this sad, sadepisode up, shall we? Next week, we’re back to the “celebrity estate planning” type of episode – and during that episode, we are going to dive into what happened estate-wise following the passing of Tom Clancy – the very, very famous author. Tom’s estate had a lot of “lessons” and takeaway that we can ALL learn from, so be sure to tune in for it next week. Alrighty, Legal Tea Listeners, talk to you then and stay well!
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