Stripper's claim to tycoon's £900m fortune reaches the highest court

[emad]

Stripper's claim to tycoon's £900m fortune reaches the highest court
From Tim Reid in Washington


ANNA NICOLE SMITH, the former Playboy cover girl accused of being America’s most brazen gold-digger, will try to persuade the US Supreme Court next week that she should inherit millions of dollars from her late husband, a Texas billionaire who married her when he was 89 and she was 26.

The judges of America’s highest court, a more cerebral audience than the stripper-turned-reality TV hostess usually entertains, informed Ms Smith yesterday that they will hear her appeal over the disputed fortune of her late husband, the wheelchair-bound oil tycoon John Howard Marshall II.

The surgically enhanced Ms Smith has been embroiled in a legal battle for a decade over her late husband’s $1.6 billion estate (£900 million). The tycoon’s son, Pierce Marshall, along with most of America, accuses her of being a shameless gold-digger.

If the Supreme Court sides with Ms Smith, the 1993 Playmate of the Year stands to gain as much as $474 million, the amount to which a judge in 2000 said she was entitled.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1801105,0...

[RedCloud]

1. Since our president is surrounded by shameless gold diggers

and oil rigger diggers it only figures
to go the way of Anna Nicole

[buff2]

2. Oh,Geesus........

Why can't that gold digging dense ass bitch GO AWAY? I'm sorry,but that is one person who disgusts me as much as the chimp does. She needs to cut the "I'm Marilyn Monroe" gig... She couldn't ever come close to Marilyn Monroe. I can't understand why that woman gets any attention at all. She's always drugged out,can't talk,is dumb as a bag of rocks and always seeks attention.Oh,wait.....people voted for the chimp,didn't they? Never mind....

[maxsolomon]

4. but she had a deal with the old man

i hang around till you die, i get the money.

she fufilled her part of the bargain; he welched.

he's probably laughing in his grave.

[buff2]

5. I hope she doesn't get a dime.

She zeroed in on his money and took advantage of an old dying man.He probably wasn't in his right state of mind when he promised her his money. His kids should be the ones to inherit it...ALL of it. Why should she get it? She's got enough money she doesn't need to pilfer someone else's. Greedy as skank.

[maxsolomon]

16. you don't give the old man enough credit

i think he was perfectly lucid & knew his spawn wouldn't let her wind up with anything, but he got to see her nekkid a lot.

[monobrau]

3. I hope she gets it

I can't stand her myself, but she was his wife, and the son sounds like a typical spoiled rich kid who the father obviously did not want to get his fortune.

[buff2]

6. Why should she get it?

It will all be wasted up her nose,anyway. Gold diggers don't deserve anything. Especially her.

[LoZoccolo]

17. Because she married and had sex with him. n/t

[alittlelark]

9. That's my opinion as well

He did not want his spoiled brat kid to get the $. Let her have it - she may be white trash, but he chose to give her the $$.

[HamdenRice]

7. Anna actually has a very compelling and important case

Obviously, ANS is a bizarre and embarrasing person. But after you read the judgments and opinions in her case, you may have a very, very different take on her claim. For professional reasons, I have had to read through the judgments, and, basically, she has suffered a gross miscarraige of justice.

The real underlying issue is not about her being a golddigger. It is that there is compelling evidence that her husband J. Howard Marshall, was attempting to make an inter vivos gift to her, and through fraud and breach of fiduciary duty her step son, Pierce Marshall, prevented that from happening. Pierce looted his father's trust in order to prevent him from carrying out a transaction he had every right to do.

Also, whatever you think of Marshall's and ANS's marriage, they were indeed, legally married. The deprivation of her marital rights by the Texas probate court creates a dangerous precedent that some spouses marital rights may not be protected if society disapproves of the marriage.

Finally, he case raises very important issues of federalism and the power of federal courts. That's why the Supreme Court decided to take her case.

And, BTW, Marshall was not the doddering old fool that the press makes him out to be.

[stopbush]

10. Good post. Thanks.

[Coexist]

18. My take - he knew he was no stud - but he was rich and wanted a

toy. They had a bargain. He got a hot young wife - you know she would've been his mistress for a mil or so - but he wanted her in his life more. His money - his decision. She should get some. I'm sure he had a passle of lawyers warning him about his estate. If he wanted to protect it from her, he easily could've.

[ramondajk24]

8. Is it relevant

that she was a stripper or Playmate of the Month or anything else tossed out there in these articles and in these posts? Why does that matter, other than that we live in a tabloid society that relishes that kind of thing.

[usafguy99]

11. If they were married let her have the money!

As long as he was competent at the time of the marraige and when he made out his will.

It may not have been the smartest thing he could have done but it was his choice and unless there is a damm good reason to deny her the money she should get every penny she is entiteled to.

I bet the son just wants all the money for himself and probably did everything possible to make sure she never sees a dime of it.

[HamdenRice]

13. You have no idea ...

You wrote "and probably did everything possible to make sure she never sees a dime of it".

The level of his fraud and abuse of process to prevent his father from carrying out the transaction is almost beyond belief.

[Tactical Progressive]

12. I could care less about Anna Nicole

or the family. They all seem pretty unsavory, like pretty much everybody in this greed-obsessed society.

She certainly deserves a chunk for her golddigging service. It would be wrong if she didn't get anything. So also do the family members. It would be wrong if they didn't get anything, even if the old coot was a bastard and shut them all out.

What I do care about is the larger issue of the inheritance tax and the right-wing hypocrisy of America as a meritocracy. That whole notion couldn't be much more ridiculous. They sneer 'meritocracy' as the underlying premise for all of their greedy anti-social ideology while at the same time screaming about the 'death tax' on inheritance. It is the absolute peak of hypocrisy. If this country were a pure meritocracy the inheritance tax would be 100%. But then that doesn't really respect thousands of years of natural human convention of the familiy as an economic entity either. There has to be a balance and part of that balance requires acknowleging that this is simply not a country where economics are based on personal meriticracy like we pretend.

I have no problem with inheritance, nor with a reasonable exemption, but then I don't subscribe to the falsehood that we are anything approaching a meritocracy nor that inheritance shouldn't be taxed. I'm in the middle, where it all works out in a balance of various aspects of human nature and fairness, unlike the con-jobs who speak out of both sides of their dishonest, absolutist mouths about both meritocracy and tax-free inheritance.

And this affair really hilights all of that. Which is good.

To that extent, I hope Anna Nicole gets a big piece because it is a highly visible example of the whole mess. In fact, I woundn't be even slightly upset if she gets everything, as the law probably supports. That would be even better. Winger principles dictate that she shouldn't get taxed on any of it! You can put that into any 'death tax' argument and make a mockery of whatever winger faux-principle rears its hypocritical head.

[cynatnite]

14. Let her have all the money

She was his wife. Would an old man be a fool? Look at how rich he was. If he didn't want her to have it, he would have made sure of it.

[HamdenRice]

15. Some things you don't know about J. Howard Marshall ...

For example, ANS was not the first stripper Marshall had as a mistress. In 1982, when he was virtually a young buck of 78, he fell for a Texas stripper named "Lady Walker." He spent about $15 million in gifts and income support for her during their 9 years together. In 1991, Marshall's wife, Betty, died, as well as Lady Walker, who died from complications arising from face lift surgery.

Although his wife died the same year, Marshall later recalled that the death of Lady Walker was the most tragic event of his life.

He was devasted by Lady Walker's death and posthumous revelations that she had a long term relationship with another man while she was Marshall's mistress, and basically ready to die when his driver took him to the stip club where ANS worked to cheer him up. His relationship with ANS seemed to bring him back from the brink of death, and he told everyone how happy he was with her and wanted to marry her. Marshall liked strippers A LOT and the pattern with ANS was almost identical to the pattern with Lady Walker, although ANS was a lot better to him than Lady Walker.

Marshall pursued ANS for three years, during which she rebuffed his proposals. ANS was discovered by Playboy and became national spokesperson and model for Guess Jeans BEFORE she consented to marrying Marshall.

So it is a myth that ANS was impoverished white trash when she married Marshall. She waited until she became independently at least a little successful before she consented to marriage.