Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

(CNN)-- One year after Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned, his widow Tenisha Warner filed a lawsuit against the actor's mother, who oversees his trust, seeking more than $1.2 million US dollars, claiming they are funds owed to him.

The lawsuit was recently filed in DeKalb County Superior Court in Decatur, Georgia, against Pamela Warner, who is named in the legal documents as 'successor trustee of the Warner Family Trust.'

Warner died on July 20, 2025, after drowning while on vacation in Costa Rica. He was 54 years old.

The late actor married Tenisha on May 23, 2022, and they signed a prenuptial agreement on May 15 of the same year, according to the lawsuit, and they have a daughter whose name has not been disclosed.

The lawsuit states that Warner had 'agreed to purchase a $1 million US dollar life insurance policy' and name his wife as a beneficiary, but he did not.

Tenisha Warner also alleges in the lawsuit that the actor did not pay her an agreed amount of $16,000 US dollars annually on their wedding anniversary, which would now amount to $50,542.46 US dollars; did not maintain an individual retirement account for her to make annual contributions; and did not pay her a promised salary of $5,000 US dollars per month for her work as his chief of staff, which amounts to $195,000 US dollars.

The lawsuit states that 'the total amount owed to the plaintiff under the agreement is no less than $1,276,042.46 US dollars, plus pre- and post-judgment interest, and the plaintiff's attorney fees and litigation costs as provided in the agreement.'

The prenuptial agreement attached to the lawsuit shows all the terms and financial conditions of the agreement.

In a statement to CNN, provided by her attorney on Tuesday, Tenisha Warner said she has sought over the past year to 'amicably settle the complex estate of her late husband and honor his final wishes,' and that her husband 'was seriously intent' on supporting their 9-year-old daughter, and 'was in the final stages of completing a new estate plan to replace the old plan established in 1996 when he was 26 years old, 20 years before we met and before our beautiful daughter was born.'

She added: 'Unfortunately, he was unable to do so before we lost him. I have struggled to care for our daughter as a single mother, and now as her sole provider, and legally, I had no choice but to take action to protect our rights before any potential statute of limitations expired.'

CNN reached out to Pamela Warner for comment.

The late actor kept his wife and daughter's identity private throughout his life. In September 2025, Tenisha Warner published a tribute to him on social media and announced that she and her young daughter would launch a company in his honor.