At The Arndt Law Firm, our team understands just how overwhelming and confusing the aftermath of a fatal accident can be for families. When tragedy strikes in Myrtle Beach or anywhere in Horry County, we know you’re not just facing heartbreak; you’re also navigating a legal process that feels daunting and unfamiliar. Our team is here to guide you through every step, offering both compassionate support and experienced legal representation.
In South Carolina, the law recognizes two distinct claims after a wrongful death: the wrongful death claim itself and a separate survival claim. These claims are paid to different groups: statutory beneficiaries for wrongful death, and the estate for survival, often leading to complicated questions about who receives what. Our team has the experience to handle both types of claims, ensuring that every detail is addressed and that your family’s interests are protected.
We work together to bring clarity to a process that can otherwise be overwhelming. From the very beginning, our team coordinates the legal steps, handles the paperwork, and communicates with all involved parties so you can focus on healing and remembering your loved one.
If you’ve lost a family member due to someone else’s negligence, we invite you to reach out to our team. Let us help you understand your options and take the first steps toward justice and closure for your family.
The wrongful death action compensates the statutory beneficiaries for what the death took from them. The survival action, under Section 15-5-90, carries forward the claim the deceased person would have had if they had lived, meaning conscious pain and suffering before death and the medical expenses of the final injury.
Where the money goes is the part families do not anticipate. Wrongful death proceeds are paid to the statutory beneficiaries directly and, while not treated as estate assets for distribution, may or may not be subject to creditors' claims depending on case law. Survival proceeds are paid to the estate, follow the will or the intestacy rules, and are exposed to the estate's creditors.
Those two groups can diverge sharply. A person may leave an estate to one set of people by will while the wrongful death beneficiaries are defined by statute in a fixed order: a surviving spouse and children first, then parents where there is no spouse or child, then the heirs at law.
The consequence is that the allocation of a settlement between the two claims is a substantive decision rather than an accounting entry. Deciding it after a number has been agreed, without having thought about it, is how families end up in conflict at the end of a case that had gone well.
Are wrongful death and survival claims the same thing?
No. The wrongful death claim compensates the statutory beneficiaries and is paid to them directly. The survival claim belongs to the estate and covers what the deceased person suffered before death, and estate creditors can reach it.
South Carolina does not let a grieving family member simply file. Under Section 15-51-20, a wrongful death action must be brought by or in the name of the executor or administrator of the estate. That person is the personal representative, named in a will or appointed by the probate court where there is none.
That creates a sequencing problem families rarely expect. A probate appointment has to happen before anything can be filed, and probate runs on its own timetable while the limitations clock keeps running. Horry County Probate Court handles that appointment, and starting it is the first practical step in a fatal injury case, well before anyone considers who to sue.
The personal representative also holds the authority to gather records. Medical records, the coroner's file, and employment records are not released to a family member who has no legal standing to request them, which is another reason the appointment comes first rather than last. The Clock Starts at the Date of Death
The wrongful death and survival actions each have their own deadlines, which do not always start from the same date. A wrongful death claim must be filed within three years of the death (S.C. Code § 15-3-530(6)). The survival action, which is the deceased's own injury claim, generally has three years beginning from when the injury was or should have been discovered (§§ 15-3-530(5), 15-3-535). When death occurs weeks or months after the injury, the survival deadline usually expires before the wrongful death deadline.
This distinction can be crucial in cases, and understanding the differences is important. For example, if someone is injured one month and dies months later, the wrongful death claim starts at the date of death, but the survival claim may expire earlier, depending on when the injury was discovered. Relying solely on the wrongful death deadline might cause the survival claim to be missed.
Claims against a government entity must be filed within two years under S.C. Code § 15-78-110, or within three years if a verified claim is first filed with the agency within one year of the loss. The Tort Claims Act caps recovery at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence, and bars punitive damages and prejudgment interest. Where the death happened at work, a third-party claim carries its own deadline.
In 2025, Horry County recorded 220 fatal and serious-injury crashes, including 38 involving DUI and 24 involving pedestrians.
Traffic is the most common source and not the only one. Fatal claims here also arise from falls, drownings, fires, workplace incidents, and untreated emergencies. What they share is that the person who could describe what happened is gone, which changes how the case is built.
Published fatalities in this county show the range: a single vehicle crash on Juniper Bay Road, a motorcycle striking a ramp guardrail on Highway 9 that killed a rider visiting from Kansas, and a pedestrian struck near the 1000 block of South Kings Highway in a hit-and-run.
Another involved a pedestrian walking in the roadway on Old Highway 17 North in North Myrtle Beach: four different roads, four different investigating agencies.
A fatal case generates a file spread across agencies, and no single request produces all of it; in Horry County, that is more complicated than in most markets.
The investigating agency holds the collision or incident report, the scene diagram, measurements, and any citations. That is the Myrtle Beach Police Department inside Myrtle Beach, the North Myrtle Beach Police Department in that city, and the South Carolina Highway Patrol on the highways and in the unincorporated county.
Horry County Fire Rescue responds across the county and generates run reports that often carry the earliest clinical description of the person's condition. The Horry County Coroner's Office is separate again and holds the cause of death determination and any toxicology. Families are frequently surprised that the coroner's record does not arrive with the police file and has to be requested on its own.
Serious injuries in this area are usually treated at Grand Strand Medical Center (809 82nd Pkwy, Myrtle Beach), the region's adult Level I and pediatric Level II trauma center, or at Conway Medical Center (300 Singleton Ridge Rd, Conway), an adult Level III trauma center.
In a survival claim, those records carry particular weight, because the evidence of conscious pain and suffering before death is found in the treatment notes and nowhere else.
Do I get the coroner's report with the police report?
No. The Horry County Coroner's Office maintains a separate file, including the cause of death determination and any toxicology, and it is requested separately from the investigating agency's report.
Every wrongful death case rests on an ordinary liability question: would the person have had a claim if they had survived. If the answer is no, the death claim fails regardless of how devastating the loss is.
The difference is the missing witness. In a survivable crash, the injured driver explains what they saw. In a fatal one, the account comes from physical evidence, the vehicles, scene measurements, the other driver, independent witnesses, and any recorded data. Reconstruction carries weight it would not otherwise carry, and the window for gathering the inputs is short.
Comparative fault still applies. The family recovers as long as the deceased person's share of fault was 50% or less, compared with all defendants combined (Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 303 S.C. 243 (1991)), with the award reduced by that percentage. A defense that would have been modest in an injury case becomes the whole case when the only person who could contradict it is not available. The same personal injury principles apply with far less margin for error.
One statutory point helps here. Under Section 56-5-1290, the accident reports drivers and owners must file are not admissible at trial as evidence of negligence or due care, so an unfavorable narrative in a report does not settle the question.
Every wrongful death case rests on an ordinary liability question, and the difficulty is that the person best placed to answer it is gone.
Reconstruction carries weight it would not otherwise carry. Vehicle positions, damage geometry, resting positions, roadway measurements, and any electronic data from a vehicle module become the account, and the window for gathering them is short. Vehicles are released to salvage, modules are overwritten, and roadway conditions change.
Independent witnesses matter more than usual and are harder to keep. In a market with a large transient population, a witness who gave a name at the scene may be several states away within days, which makes early contact a practical necessity rather than a refinement.
Comparative fault still applies. The family recovers as long as the deceased person's share of the fault was not greater than the defendant's, with the award reduced by that percentage. A defense that would have been modest in an injury case can become the whole case when the only person who could contradict it is unavailable.
One statutory point helps. Under Section 56-5-1290, the accident reports drivers and owners must file are not admissible at trial as evidence of negligence or due care, so an unfavorable narrative in a report does not settle the question.
How is fault proved when the person who died cannot testify?
Through physical evidence: scene measurements, vehicle damage, resting positions, electronic data, and independent witnesses. That evidence degrades quickly, which is why the early work matters more in a fatal case than in any other.
A fatal workplace injury runs on a track families rarely expect. Section 42-1-540 provides that the remedies under the workers' compensation title exclude all other rights and remedies against the employer, which means the obvious defendant is usually unavailable no matter how clearly the employer was at fault.
The same section carries a carve-out that matters on a multi-contractor site. The limitation does not apply to injuries resulting from acts of a subcontractor of the employer, and it does not bar an employee of one subcontractor from suing another subcontractor where a common employer hired both.
What otherwise remains is the third-party claim: another contractor, the driver who caused the crash, the manufacturer of equipment, or the owner of the property. When workers' compensation covers a death at work, the family should sue any third party within one year after the carrier accepts liability or pays under an award (§ 42-1-560(b)). After that, the right to sue can pass to the carrier once it gives 20 days' written notice, and the family loses control of the case. Any excess recovery above what the carrier paid is addressed under subsection (g), with the carrier holding a lien.
One year is shorter than the three-year wrongful death deadline, and families told about the longer number can lose the only viable claim while believing they have time. Fatal burn injury cases raise this pattern regularly.
| Element | Wrongful death claim | Survival claim |
|---|---|---|
| Governing provision | S.C. Code Section 15-51-10 et seq. | S.C. Code Section 15-5-90 |
| Who brings it | The personal representative | The personal representative |
| Who is paid | Statutory beneficiaries directly | The estate |
| What it covers | The family's losses from the death | Pain and medical bills before death |
| Reachable by estate creditors | No | Yes |
The wrongful death claim addresses what the beneficiaries lost: financial support, the value of services the person provided, funeral and burial costs, loss of companionship, experience, and judgment, as well as grief and mental shock. The survival claim addresses what the person suffered, meaning conscious pain before death and the medical expenses incurred.
South Carolina does not cap non-economic damages in an ordinary wrongful death case. The statutory cap applies to medical malpractice claims and does not reach a road or premises death. Against a government entity, the Tort Claims Act caps recovery at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence and bars punitive damages entirely.
Punitive damages require clear and convincing evidence of wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct and are capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000 (adjusted for inflation), rising to the greater of four times compensatory damages or $2 million in certain cases (S.C. Code § 15-32-530).
The cap does not apply where the defendant intended harm, was convicted of a felony for the same conduct, or was substantially impaired by alcohol or drugs. Where a fatality followed a hit-and-run, the criminal exposure is significant, since leaving the scene of a crash causing death carries a sentence of up to twenty-five years under Section 56-5-1210.
A wrongful death or survival settlement in South Carolina is not considered final once the parties agree on a sum. It must be approved by a probate court, circuit court, or U.S. district court, with only the personal representative able to petition for approval. The court reviews the settlement to ensure it is fair, reasonable, and that the distribution between claims and among beneficiaries is appropriate.
When a beneficiary is a minor, the court's role is more involved, and the funds are typically protected until they reach majority. South Carolina law tolls the statute of limitations for minors in certain situations (S.C. Code § 15-3-40), but how this tolling is calculated is disputed, so families should not rely on it.
The standard wrongful death deadline is three years from the date of death. This period effectively adds additional weeks at the end of a case, offering protection to the family. It also means that the distribution of funds between wrongful death and survival claims must be determined before settlement negotiations, since this division affects who receives what and which creditors can access those funds.
A lawsuit has been officially filed with the Horry County Clerk of Court. The clerk's office is located at 1301 Second Avenue in Conway, South Carolina, 29526. For any inquiries or to obtain further information regarding this case, you can contact the office by phone at 843-915-5083.
Two proceedings run in parallel: the probate matter that creates authority to sue, and the civil action itself. They are separate courts with separate filings and separate timelines, and delay in the first stalls the second.
Where a person is fatally injured and survives long enough for transport, treatment usually occurs at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach. Those records are the evidence a survival claim depends on.
A death that occurs in Horry County while the family lives elsewhere adds steps rather than obstacles, and knowing them early prevents delay.
The claim proceeds in South Carolina because that is where it arose, under South Carolina deadlines and South Carolina law. Residency is not a requirement for the claim itself.
The probate step is where the complication sits. A personal representative has to be appointed before anything can be filed or even requested, and where the deceased person's estate is administered in another state, the interaction between that administration and the authority needed to bring a South Carolina action is a question to settle early rather than discover late.
Records also sit here rather than there. The investigating agency's file, the Horry County Coroner's file, county fire rescue run reports, and the treating hospital's records are all in South Carolina, and each requires a separate request from someone with authority to make it.
We live out of state. Can we still bring the claim?
Yes. The claim arises where the death occurred and proceeds in South Carolina under South Carolina deadlines. The probate appointment needed to bring it is worth addressing early, particularly where the estate is administered elsewhere.
Only the executor or administrator of the estate, acting for the statutory beneficiaries. Individual family members cannot file on their own.
Three years from the date of death under S.C. Code Section 15-3-530(6). Claims against a government entity must be filed within two years under S.C. Code § 15-78-110, or within three years if a verified claim is first filed with the agency within one year of the loss.
A surviving spouse and children first, then parents where there is no spouse or child, then heirs at law. Survival claim proceeds go to the estate instead.
No. The civil claim is separate and proceeds on its own timeline. A conviction is useful evidence and is not required.
Nothing up front. Consultations are free and the fee is contingent on recovery.
The Arndt Law Firm begins a fatal injury case with two things at once: the probate step that appoints a personal representative, since nothing can be filed or even requested without it, and the records that will not survive delay.
In this county, that record trail runs through more hands than most. The investigating agency, county fire rescue, and the coroner each hold a separate piece, and the coroner's file does not arrive with the police report.
The allocation between the wrongful death and survival claims is treated as part of the case rather than an afterthought at settlement. Horry County matters are filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Conway. Attorney Jonathan S. Arndt has been licensed in South Carolina since 2018 and reviews the firm's fatal injury matters.
Families owe nothing unless there is a recovery, and the first conversation carries no cost and no obligation. You can reach the firm through the contact page. There is no rush required from a grieving family, though the reconstruction evidence a fatal case depends on is gone long before three years have passed.
Last reviewed: August 2026
This page was reviewed by Jonathan S. Arndt, licensed in South Carolina since 2018.
Content is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed South Carolina attorney for guidance specific to your situation.
