While there are hundreds of thousands of probate cases each year in the United States, the Supreme Court has decided to take up the case of Anna Nicole Smith for the second time to determine if her estate should get part of the fortune from her late Texas oil baron husband.
This is the continuation of the fight between Smith and the family of Texas billionaire J. Howard Marshall, whom Smith married in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89. He met Smith while she was a stripper.
In 2006, the Supreme Court gave Smith a victory in reversing a lower court to allow her to claim millions of dollars she said that her late husband had promised her before his death after 14 months of marriage. Here is a prior column on that case.
As discussed earlier, the Ninth Circuit ruled against Smith’s estate and decided that it could not receive any of the $300 million. The ruling again favored the estate of Pierce Marshall, the son of the Texas oil tycoon who was worth an estimated $1.6 billion. Both Pierce and Smith were longtime court rivals and both died before the matter was resolved.
Smith is survived by 4-year-old daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead who is actually the daughter of Larry Birkhead, a friend of Smiths. Both Birkhead and Smith’s former lawyer fought in court over who would be declared the father of Dannielynn.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next year.
Source: Reuters
OT/ here cause I can’t find the original thread:
The young lady Disney moved to a new work area due to her wearing a hajab will go back to a more public job with a new look after reaching a compromise with Disney, and she looks FABULOUS! The hajab is unexplored fashion territory. The folks at Project Runway need to look into a cross-cultural design challenge like this one. Srsly 🙂
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/30/disneyland-hijab-dispute-_n_745610.html
These judges won’t pass up an opportunity to get in the tabloid culture.
Court for hire.
That the courts dragged this out and allowed that shitty son to cause all this uproar is ridiculous….and 1 of the reasons that ethical people shun courts and creeps use them as weapons.
There is no doubt in my mind that the stress that the courts allowed to be imposed, and indeed did impose on Nicole Smith was responsible for her death. And I think this sort of thing happens all the time.
I think that the first decision regarding an inheritance from income derived after the marriage was a correct once since Probate Courts are a court of EQUITY and law combine….
Pierce was and is as greedy of a Son of as they come. He was estranged from his father….I hope that they do the right things as the child at issue was born during the marriage and was never contested by the only one whom had standing the contest the childs blood line…..
Do I hear that greed…..money…..Texas…..oil…..need more be said….