In a tragic story that received countless hours of national news coverage, Aric Hutchinson, 36, lost his wife, Samantha Miller, 34, to a drunk driver on their wedding night on a South Carolina beach road.
Jamie Komoroski, 25, was allegedly behind the wheel when she struck the golf cart carrying the celebratory couple, who had been married just hours earlier, away from their wedding reception on April 28.
Less than two weeks after Samantha Miller died in that drunk driving accident, her mother started leveling legal threats against the newlywed husband turned widower — threatening to contest the validity of their marriage, a court filing obtained by Law&Crime alleges.
Filed in South Carolina’s Ninth District Court of Common Pleas, the 21-page memo makes clear, however, that Lisa Miller has not filed any document specifically intended to contest the marriage.
Instead, the filing says, there have been threats from his dead wife’s mother by way of her lawyers.
“Less than two weeks after the tragedy, Sam’s mother, Lisa Miller, began threatening to bring a legal challenge to the validity of the marriage between her deceased daughter and Aric, and arguing that she — not Aric — therefore should be the sole beneficiary of Sam’s Estate,” the filing reads.
The context is elaborated on later in the filing.
“In early May 2023, less than three weeks after Sam’s death, Lisa Miller’s lawyers requested and held a meeting with Aric’s lawyers and proposed that they serve as co-counsel in the wrongful death case,” the memo says. “When Aric’s lawyers did not immediately agree, Lisa Miller’s lawyers threatened to challenge the validity of the marriage and seek to make Lisa Miller the sole heir to and Personal Representative of Sam’s Estate.”
Here is how Hutchinson’s filing frames the threats:
Lisa Miller has threatened to challenge the validity of the marriage on the baseless theory that a marriage in South Carolina is invalid if the married couple did not spend the night together after the wedding. Aric has provided Lisa Miller with the South Carolina law that makes crystal clear that (1) there is no cohabitation requirement for a valid marriage in South Carolina, and (2) in any event, Lisa Miller has no standing to challenge the validity of Sam and Aric’s marriage on this basis (or any other basis) because, under South Carolina law, as in most states, a voidable marriage may not be challenged after the death of one of the spouses.
The memo argues that those threats, along with terse motions to intervene, are part of a long process “intended to delay approval” of coming settlements for Samantha Miller’s wrongful death.
Jamie Komoroski (Charleston County Sheriff’s Office), Aric Hutchinson and Samantha Miller pictured leaving their wedding reception (via court documents)
The newlywed bride died intestate, meaning she had no will, and, under South Carolina law, her assets passed on to Hutchinson as her surviving spouse. Those assets are likely soon to include substantial payouts from various companies being sued on claims arising from the drunk-driving crash. Several companies have already agreed to settle with Hutchinson over his wife’s death.
Lisa Miller filed her first motion to intervene in the settlement process in late July. That effort got the widower and his brief mother-in-law to a failed mediation. In early September, under pressure from Hutchinson to either withdraw or defend her claims on the merits, Lisa Miller withdrew the motion to intervene.
On Oct. 31, a hearing was scheduled to discuss and potentially finalize some of the settlements with some of the named defendants being sued for Samantha Miller’s wrongful death on the theory that they over-served the drunk driver with alcohol that night. That same day, Lisa Miller re-filed her “two-sentence” motion to intervene.
And, the widower’s filing argues, Lisa Miller’s filings are both over-promising and procedurally defective.
“Lisa Miller’s Motion to Intervene, which is only two sentences, fails to identify any grounds for the motion and fails to attach the required pleading,” the memo reads. “Her Motion represents to this Court that ‘there will be a probate matter filed today to appoint a third-party administrator,’ but more than a month later, Lisa Miller has never filed this ‘probate matter.’ More importantly, Lisa Miller does not explain how filing a ‘probate matter’ seeking appointment of a third-party administrator could give Lisa Miller an interest in this action.”
Hutchinson asks the court to “promptly deny” Lisa Miller’s motion to intervene in the settlement lawsuits.
“Lisa Miller’s actions since the accident have made clear that she has no colorable basis to challenge the validity of the marriage or to intervene in this action; rather, she is attempting to use her practical ability to delay these proceedings by filing baseless motions in hopes of pressuring Aric into paying her money to which she has no legal right,” the memo reads. “Lisa Miller’s actions are not only morally questionable (to say the least); they are legally baseless.”
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