A former topless dancer who married a Texas oil tycoon won a unanimous US Supreme Court ruling yesterday and gets a new chance to collect millions of dollars she says her late husband promised her.
The judges overturned a US appeals court ruling that Anna Nicole Smith was entitled to nothing because federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear claims that are also involved in state probate hearings. Ms Smith was 26 when she married oil tycoon J Howard Marshall, then 89, in 1994. They met three years earlier when she was dancing in a Houston bar.
Mr Marshall was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, worth more than an estimated $1.6 billion (€1.3 billion).
His death after 14 months of marriage triggered a legal battle between his son, E Pierce Marshall and Ms Smith, who also had a reality show.
Ms Smith said 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 Ms Smith and awarded her $474 million. A federal district court judge then cut Ms Smith's award to $88 million. But the appeals court ruled she was entitled to nothing because federal courts lack jurisdiction in probate disputes.
The Supreme Court ruled against the appeals court ruling. Yesterday's decision addressed only whether federal courts can decide Ms Smith's claims, and not the merits of her arguments that she should get the money. E Pierce Marshall said the ruling involved a "technical issue" and does not validate Smith's claims. He said his lawyers would ask the appeals court to overturn on various grounds the district court's ruling in Smith's favour. - (Reuters)