Playmate appeals to Supreme Court

[gldstwmn]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/27/pl....ap/index.html

Anna Nicole Smith seeks $474 million inheritance

Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Posted: 11:57 a.m. EDT (15:57 GMT)


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith is going to the United States' highest court in her fight over the fortune of her 90-year-old late husband.

U.S. Supreme Court justices said Tuesday they would consider Smith's appeal, in which the stripper-turned-reality television star stands to win as much as $474 million that a bankruptcy judge initially said she was entitled to.

Smith has not gotten any money from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, an oil tycoon who married her in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. Marshall, one of Texas' wealthiest men, died in 1995.

At issue for the court is a relatively mundane technical issue: when federal courts may hear claims that are also involved state probate proceedings. But the facts of the case are eye-catching.

The 1993 Playmate of the Year and self-described "blonde bombshell" claims her husband promised her millions but that his scheming son cut her out of the estate.

Her decade-long legal fight with E. Pierce Marshall has been marked by highs and lows.

The initial $474 million award was reduced to about $89 million, then thrown out altogether by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The appeals court said that a Texas probate court's decision that the oilman's son was his sole heir should stand.

The appellate ruling that federal courts in California never had jurisdiction, erased a lower court finding that Smith was entitled to compensatory and punitive damages because Marshall's son tried to keep her from receiving money from his father's estate.

The Supreme Court filings included only a hint of the nastiness and sleaze from the family fight. The dispute has involved a "a bizarre set of events," justices were told in a filing by G. Eric Brunstad Jr., a Yale Law School professor who represents Marshall's son.

Smith, whose real name is Vickie Lynn Marshall, had received more than $6 million in gifts from her late husband, but was not included in his will, justices were told.

Brunstad said that Smith began her legal fight for her husband's money even before his death.

Smith's attorney, Kent Richland, told justices that Marshall's son "devotes nearly half his brief to manipulating the record to cast (Vickie) in a bad light." Richland said that J. Howard Marshall intended to provide for his wife throughout her life.

"His efforts failed, however, because -- as both lower courts found -- Pierce suppressed or destroyed the trust instrument and stripped Howard of all his assets before his death," Richland wrote.

[JazmenFlowers]

such a touchy issue...I'm not sure exactly how I'd rule, but I think a lot of this is a huge machine because so many stand to make a lot of money

[gldstwmn]

I don't know why the family has drug it out for so long. I think they should just settle with her, already.

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I don't know why the family has drug it out for so long. I think they should just settle with her, already.

I Hope she gets every last nickel.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

I Hope she gets every last nickel.

Why does that not surprise me

[dissention]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

I Hope she gets every last nickel.

Me, too.

I am an unabashed Anna Nicole fan.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

Me, too.

I am an unabashed Anna Nicole fan.

Oh I like her - but the fact reamins no court that heard the testimony or reviewed a direct appeal from that decision has ever held in her favor and a jury refused to believe her based on lots of damning testimony. Her one saving court was a bankruptcy court. She will likely never see any of that money and somewhat correctly so as she never made her case no matter how much I may like her or have sympathy for her.

But, maybe you should have been on the jury and you could have believed her lone word against many!!

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Oh I like her - but the fact reamins no court that heard the testimony or reviewed a direct appeal from that decision has ever held in her favor and a jury refused to believe her based on lots of damning testimony. Her one saving court was a bankruptcy court. She will likely never see any of that money and somewhat correctly so as she never made her case no matter how much I may like her or have sympathy for her.

But, maybe you should have been on the jury and you could have believed her lone word against many!!

Kinda hard for her to prove her case when the son destroyed the instrument...

as both lower courts found -- Pierce suppressed or destroyed the trust instrument and stripped Howard of all his assets before his death," Richland wrote.

he's sabotaged her from the gate, he's always characterized her as a golddigger but Im sure the old man was happy to have her around. In the end, she was his wife, and CA law (I know its a TX case) would have given her the assets as his wife anyway. so, Im a bit surprised that the SF Appellate court even heard it...do they have jurisdiction? Is TX in the 9th circuit? I didnt think so......and if not, the 9th circuit decision is moot and it should go up. I hope she wins the whole enchilada. with a cherry on top.
(yum! )

[JazmenFlowers]

Originally Posted by dissention

Me, too.

I am an unabashed Anna Nicole fan.

I couldn't agree more.

[DownOnRodeo]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I don't know why the family has drug it out for so long.

I'm not sure if your new version of the past participle for 'drag' is going to catch on with educators.

[sparky]

Legalities aside, I hope she gets it.

I think she is a drug addled, deluded, airheaded gold digger. Even at the height of her beauty (the initial Guess campaign) she proved herself to be a whiny, pathetic uneducated garbage heap. She is a genetic anomaly. Nonetheless, she did some dirty work.
It reminds me of a great joke I heard, I think it was on SNL. They reported on some crazy midwestern/southern hot dog eating contest. The quote was something like this : "This week, a man from Indiana devoured 34 hot dogs in 2 minutes in a hot dog eating contest. He won a grand prize of 75 dollars. In a related story, Anna Nicole Smith was awarded over 400 million for sucking an 80 year old shriveled weenie for two years."

Truer words were never spoken. And even if she only did it a few times, she deserves 20 million minimum.

Straight guys (ALL 3 OF YOU ON THE LEDGE), if you were 80, and she looked like that, and you had the dough, admit it...you'd pay it if you had it.

Hell, when I am 80, if I can get a Chris Meloni lookalike to come to my place once a week until I expire, he can have everything.

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by sparky

Legalities aside, I hope she gets it.

I think she is a drug addled, deluded, airheaded gold digger. Even at the height of her beauty (the initial Guess campaign) she proved herself to be a whiny, pathetic uneducated garbage heap. She is a genetic anomaly. Nonetheless, she did some dirty work.
It reminds me of a great joke I heard, I think it was on SNL. They reported on some crazy midwestern/southern hot dog eating contest. The quote was something like this : "This week, a man from Indiana devoured 34 hot dogs in 2 minutes in a hot dog eating contest. He won a grand prize of 75 dollars. In a related story, Anna Nicole Smith was awarded over 400 million for sucking an 80 year old shriveled weenie for two years."

Truer words were never spoken. And even if she only did it a few times, she deserves 20 million minimum.

Straight guys (ALL 3 OF YOU ON THE LEDGE), if you were 80, and she looked like that, and you had the dough, admit it...you'd pay it if you had it.

Hell, when I am 80, if I can get a Chris Meloni lookalike to come to my place once a week until I expire, he can have everything.

And the "crass" award goes to...........SPARKY!

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

I'm not sure if your new version of the past participle for 'drag' is going to catch on with educators.

Clever, you are. FYI, it's caught on with Merriam Webster:
http://www.miriamwebster.com

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by irishgrl

And the "crass" award goes to...........SPARKY!

LOL - yes it does - and that is why we love him

BTW - doesn't Anna N. being a stripper, paymate, etc. bother your sense on femininism (insert other word I am no longer allowed to say here ) or does the 80 year old slobbering sex crazy man abusing a woman override that

Though I am not 100% sure, I do not think it was ever proven the son destroyed anything. Spill

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by sparky

. . . Hell, when I am 80, if I can get a Chris Meloni lookalike to come to my place once a week until I expire, he can have everything.

What about when or if you were a late thirties faded and somewhat blousy Southerner