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Anna Nicole Smith - Dead and Stuff (MERGED)

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greatwhitenorth

All-American
Playmate appeals to Supreme Court<O:p></O:p>
Anna Nicole Smith seeks $474 million inheritance

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.<O:p></O:p>
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 <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><ST1:pTexas'</ST1:p</st1:State> 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<O:p</O:p
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 <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pSan Francisco</ST1:p</st1:City>. The appeals court said that a <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1:pTexas</ST1:p</st1:State> 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.<O:p</O:p
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 <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Yale</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Law</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceType> professor who represents <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:pMarshall</ST1:place</st1:City>'s son<O:p</O:p
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.<O:p</O:p
Brunstad said that Smith began her legal fight for her husband's money even before his death.<O:p></O:p>
Smith's attorney, Kent Richland, told justices that <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:place w:st="on">Marshall</ST1:place></st1:City>'s son "devotes nearly half his brief to manipulating the record to cast (Vickie) in a bad light." <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:place w:st="on">Richland</ST1:place></st1:City> said that J. Howard Marshall intended to provide for his wife throughout her life.<O:p></O:p>
"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," <st1:City w:st="on"><ST1:place w:st="on">Richland</ST1:place></st1:City> wrote.<O:p></O:p>

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/27/playboy.suit.ap/?section=cnn_showbiz
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Don't have a comment on this but thought it was interesting.
 
reuters

Anna Nicole Smith wins ruling

Mon May 1, 2006 10:26am ET
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By James Vicini




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith won from the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday a new chance to collect millions of dollars she claims her late Texas oil tycoon husband promised her.
The justices unanimously overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that the blond widow was entitled to nothing because federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear claims that are also involved in state probate hearings.

The high court sent the case back to the federal appeals court in California for more proceedings in the long-running legal battle involving the former Playboy centerfold who also had her own reality television show.



Smith was 26 when she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994. He was 89. They met three years earlier when she was working as a topless dancer in Houston.

Marshall was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, worth more than an estimated $1.6 billion. His death in 1995, after 14 months of marriage, triggered a legal battle between Smith and his son, E. Pierce Marshall.

She claimed that her husband promised her half of his estate. The son said the more than $6 million in gifts she received in 1994 was all his father wanted her to get.

In Texas, a state probate court ruled that E. Pierce Marshall was entitled to his father's estate.

But in California, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled for Smith and awarded her $474 million because of her claims the son had interfered with the inheritance she was supposed to receive.

A federal district court judge then cut Smith's award to $88 million. But the appeals court ruled she was entitled to nothing because federal courts lack jurisdiction in probate disputes.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in the ruling for the Supreme Court that the appeals court was wrong and the district court properly asserted jurisdiction over Smith's claims against the son.
 
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LINK

Anna Nicole Smith Found Unresponsive In Hotel Room

(CBS) MIAMI Anna Nicole Smith has been found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., WFOR-TV is reporting.

Smith has been reportedly taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., after a witness says paramedics were pumping her chest when they took her out of the hotel.
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