Anna Nicole Awarded $449 million in Cali. Bankruptcy Court

Judge awards ex-Playmate Anna Nicole Smith $449 million

Reuters
Sept. 28, 2000 06:15


LOS ANGELES - A federal bankruptcy judge said he would award former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith $449 million in a court battle with the son of her late 90-year-old husband over his $1.6 billion estate.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Samuel Bufford said the amount Smith is due could change, depending on punitive damages that he would consider and a separate court case over the fortune of the late oil baron J. Howard Marshall -- the so-called ''richest man in Texas'' -- set to begin Thursday in Houston.

''I'm so excited,'' Smith told KPRC-TV in Houston on Wednesday. ''No one ever took care of me in my whole life, and this man did and I loved him for that.''

''I hope it ends up like my husband wanted it to. I hope it ends up that I get everything that he wanted me to have,'' she said.

Pierce Marshall, 61, said in a statement that he would appeal. ''This extraordinary decision is a miscarriage of justice that is not supported by the facts and will not stand up on appeal.''

His attorneys argued in court that, while the elder Marshall may have lavished Smith with gifts and attention, he never left her money in any of his six wills.

The former Vicki Lynn Hogan met Marshall in 1991 at the Houston strip club where she worked and married him in 1994, when he was 89 and she was 26. Their marriage ended 14 months later with the billionaire's death.

Smith came forward to claim that her wheelchair-bound husband repeatedly vowed to leave her half of his estate. She sought that money in Houston probate court and in bankruptcy court in Los Angeles, arguing that Pierce Marshall interfered with her inheritance.

In testimony last October in Bufford's court, Smith clutched a photo of her late husband and said he repeatedly proposed to her after they met the strip club where her ample figure made her a crowd favorite.

So anxious was he to marry that he offered half his money, she said.

''This was one of the ways he wanted to hurry me up and marry him. He loved me and I loved him,'' Smith told the court.

Bufford, who conducted a five-day trial, agreed with her in a nine-page written ruling issued late Wednesday.

''The court finds that Pierce Marshall ... interfered with Vicki Marshall's expectancy of an inheritance, which she would have otherwise have obtained ... under Texas law,'' Bufford said.

''The damages are $449,754,134, minus ... any amount that Vicki Marshall actually recovers in the pending probate court action in Texas'' and estate taxes, he said. ''In addition, Vicki Marshall is entitled to punitive damages in an amount that remains to be determined.''

Smith filed for bankruptcy protection in 1996 after she lost an $850,000 judgement brought against her by a former female assistant alleging sexual harassment.

Marshall's older son, Howard Marshall III, 63, is also suing for part of the estate in the Texas case.

His father cut him out of the will after a business dispute in 1980 involving Koch Industries, a Wichita, Kansas-based energy firm which the elder Marshall helped found and in which he was a major shareholder.

Howard Marshall says he lost his inheritance because Pierce Marshall convinced their father that his brother was working against their interests.

Pierce Marshall, who denies his brother's allegations, has said his father's assets are worth between $40 million and $60 million, not the $1.6 billion claimed by Smith. That figure is in dispute because of the Koch holdings, the value of which are not publicly known because Koch is a privately held company.

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I don't understand that, either. Of course, I don't understand how a guy who was worth maybe $1.6 billion when he died could be considered the richest man in Texas. I'd have thought Dell's net worth of $16 billion would be considered more than $1.6 billion. Even Red McCombs has an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. And let's not forget Lee ($4.7 billion), Robert ($2.8 billion) and Sid ($4.3 billion) Bass from Fort Worth, and Ray ($2.1 billion) Hunt of Dallas as well as Mark ($1.9 billion) Cuban of Dallas or Charles ($1.8 billion) Butt of San Antonio.

The richest man in Houston maybe, but not Texas. (By the way, Forbes estimates the estate as being worth $1.2 billion rather than $1.6 billion).

It is weird, though, that Anna Nicole can file for Bankruptcy and that judge can decree that some other party give her money. How in the heck does that work? I guess I'll declare bankruptcy when any of my family members die and insist that I get money from the estates of those family members even if I am not included in their wills.

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But Michael Dell's stock has to do a lot of fluctuating for him to fall to $1.6 billion.

Plus, the value of the company does change even though the stock isn't publically traded with an easy to pin-down value day by day. The ups and downs aren't going to be as large or volatile, but there are ups and downs in value.

It'd take a whole lot of upside to leap frog over the ten or twelve others in front of the Marshalls and become the richest man in Texas. I think it was just as expression (he was very wealthy, so people who knew him referred to him as the ricjest man in Texas)rather than an actual accounting of his net worth in relation to other people from Texas.

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In my understanding of Texas law, though, it is hard to disinherit one's spouse. Merely not having the spouse in the will is apparently not enough to keep her from inheriting half the estate. So while the probate has yet to rule on the will/estate itself, the way the law is written, Anna Nicole Smith is entitled to her half.

But I don't understand how a California Bankruptcy Court can make a judgement regarding a Texas Probate issue that is under consideration in a Texas court. If Texas law really would side with Anna Nicole, then it seems like it should be up to Texas courts to follow through with that.

Of course, I guess that the Bankruptcy Counrt (being a Federal Court) can note what assets Anna Nicole is entitled to and make allowances for the state law in anticipation of the Texas Court following the law. I sort of see it as Pierce Marshall will be denying Anna Nicole rights under the Texas law once the Texas courts take their proper course if he doesn't turn over the assets due to Anna Nicole (and the Bankruptcy Court has entered a judgement to make sure that he does turn over those assets once the Texas Court has properly ruled on the matter.)

Of course, if the Texas Court then rules under a different interpretation of the law that allows for the will to be followed and Anna Nicole to be disinherited, then the Bankruptcy Court has ruled contrary to Texas Law (since the Texas Courts have the right to interpret Texas laws).

I know none of the above makes sense, and I apologize for that.

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