Supreme Court agrees to look into ex-playmate's estate case

Supreme Court agrees to look into ex-playmate's estate case

The US Supreme court has decided to hear ex-Playboy playmate, Anna Nicole Smith's case, wherein she is claiming a whopping $474 million from her deceased husband's estate.

Anna Nicole worked as topless dancer in Houston before being made the Playmate of the Year in 1993. Thereafter, she married an 89-year-old oil magnate in Texas called J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 when she was just 26. After Marshall died in 1995 from pneumonia, Nicole has been involved in a tussle over Marshall's estate with his son, E. Pierce Marshall.

Claiming that Marshall promised her the millions of dollars she has been fighting for, Nicole asserts that Pierce is trying his best to stop her from receiving the bequeathed fortune.

Significant developments in this case can be traced back to March 2001, when a Harris County passed its verdict for Pierce Marshall, stating that Smith was not liable to get anything from Marshall's estate. At the same time, Smith went to a court in California with a case for bankruptcy, which granted her the entire claim of $475 million.

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These contradictory judgments took both contenders, Pierce and Smith, to one of California's federal district courts to find a resolution to the same. The federal court, then, slashed Smith's money to $88.5 million. After that, the panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco stood by the Texas probate verdict saying that Pierce was the sole and rightful heir to his father's estate.

Nevertheless, Smith claims that her deceased husband had assured her of a good 50% of his estate by word of mouth as her name is not included in the will, and that Pierce had tampered with his will stealthily without telling his father, to make himself the sole beneficiary of the entire will. The will has been updated last in 1994.

Her real name being Vickie Lynn Marshall, Smith received gifts worth as much as $6.7 million from her husband before his death. The amount comprised of jewellery worth $2.4 million and $700,000 in cash as assistance for her profession. Pierce therefore gave a statement, wherein he reiterated that there was “no evidence that Anna Nicole did not receive all the money my father intended to give her.”

The Supreme Court will now decide whether the California court's judgement of giving Smith the entire amount stands valid, or the Harris county court's verdict of giving Smith zilch.