The widow of the actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is suing his mother to recover at least $1.2 million from a family trust, claiming she was owed money from a premarital agreement, according to court documents.
The suit was filed on Monday in DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia, one year after Mr. Warner, who rose to fame playing Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” died at 54 when he drowned at a beach in Costa Rica.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Warner’s wife, Tenisha Delilah Warner, names Mr. Warner’s mother, Pamela Warner, as the defendant in her role as the successor trustee of a Warner family revocable trust dated Oct. 7, 1996.
The 1996 trust was created when Mr. Warner was 26 years old, 20 years before he and his wife met, and states that he was unmarried and had no children, according to the suit.
Tenisha Delilah Warner, in a statement emailed by a representative on Wednesday, said Mr. Warner had been close to finalizing a new estate plan to replace the “stale plan.”
“Sadly, he was unable to do so before we lost him,” she said.
Tenisha Delilah Warner’s lawyers did not reply to emails seeking comment. The lawsuit said she was seeking a judgment based on an alleged breach of contract.
Pamela Warner and her lawyers did not immediately reply to email requests for comment on Wednesday.
“For the last year, I have attempted to privately settle my beloved husband’s complicated estate and honor his last wishes,” Tenisha Delilah Warner said in her statement. “Malcolm had every intention to provide for our 9-year-old daughter and me.”
The lawsuit says she and Mr. Warner had in place a premarital agreement when they married on May 23, 2022. The filing said he had agreed to buy a $1 million life insurance policy, and to pay her $16,000 on each anniversary of their marriage. It alleged that he did not do so.
Mr. Warner, the filing alleges, also did not deliver on an agreement to fund a Roth IRA for her during their marriage, and did not pay her a $5,000 monthly salary, as promised, for working as his chief of staff and assistant. It claims the total owed to her is $1,276,042.46.