Many Americans tuned in to the story about the mysterious death of reality star Anna Nicole Smith. Now that her autopsy has been made public, the media reports are moving on to the next tidbit of tabloid, Anna Nicole Smith’s baby’s father and the legal battle to determine who has custody, visitations, guardianship, and inevitably, the claim to the late J. Howard Marshall’s millions. This exaggeration of the truth is a typical ploy by the media to further exploit and insult the viewers’ intelligence. It is not likely that the baby, Dannylynn, will ever receive the millions that the media has been teasing viewers about. On the contrary, legal experts believe the media is perpetuating what is equivalent to a legal myth. What Dannylynn will find is an exorbitant amount of litigation fees associated with defending her mother’s legal claims against the Marshalls.
Here’s the real deal with Anna Nicole Smith’s legal struggle in probate court. When J. Howard Marshall passed away, Smith’s legal claims against his estate was tenuous. After six months of sorting through testimonies and substantial evidence, the jury trial concluded that Marshall’s will and estate plan was not interfered with. The Texas probate court held that Marshall’s son, Pierce, was the legitimate heir to the estate, and substantative evidence support the contention that this was the true intention of the late Marshall.
In the midst of the trial, Smith went forum shopping and filed a bankruptcy claim in California federal court. The judge in bankruptcy court awarded Smith nearly $450 million she claimed her late husband had intended to gift to her, but for Pierce’s tortious interference with the gift. On appeal, the court federal district court in California vacated the $450 million award, reviewed the case de novo, and reduce the award to $88 million. Still with me? How about this extra bit of footnote here. How did the bankruptcy court and the federal district court take such a short time to go through evidentiary issues that the Texas court took six months to review? Well, due to judicial efficiency, the federal and bankruptcy courts did not allow most of the witnesses to testify and it basically reviewed depositions from the Texas court. Not quite the same result, which was what Smith’s legal team was hoping for.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the highest appeals court in the 9th Circuit which includes California, overruled the $88 million award and held that neither the bankruptcy court nor the federal district court had any ability to make such rulings on this matter because federal “probate exception” denied federal jurisdiction over probate matters. At the U.S. Supreme Court level, the highest court of the land, overruled the 9th Circuit court and stated that their ruling was overly broad and remanded the case to the 9th Circuit to assess the case on its merits. The case is with the 9th Circuit now.
What happened to the Texas probate court’s judgment? Good question. Now that the case is with the 9th Circuit, they will determine whether there was a final ruling on the matter, and most legal experts agree that the Texas probate court jury trial did result in a final judgment. This being the case, Smith’s legal claims are extinguished. Due to the fact that the Texas court had a jury trial with substantial evidence and witnesses, the fact that it was concluded before the federal district court issued its ruling by vacating the judgment award by the bankruptcy court, and judicial efficiency, it is reasonable to conclude that the 9th Circuit will affirm the judgment issued by the Texas probate court.
More importantly, the legal doctrine of “res judicata,” which means in Latin that the matter has already been adjudicated, is primarily at issue here. In this case, the matter was decided in Texas and finding otherwise would violate the intentions of the Constitution, which establishes for litigants a certain finality so that defendants may not have to defend the same claim repeatedly. Why not dismiss the case? Not likely, but the 9th Circuit will probably defer to the findings from the Texas court.
Once Dannylynn’s claims are extinguished, which it inevitably will, what remains is a mound of legal bills incurred by her mother’s legal claims against Marshall’s estate. Lets see how many relatives will fight for custody of her then. Media reports have embellished claims that Dannylyn is worth millions and the biological father or legal guardian, may stake claims to her millions until Dannylynn is of legal age. This headline grabs people’s attention and makes it tantalizing, despite it blatant incongruencies. The media perpetuate this legal myth because no one is questioning the validity of celebrity news. What is specualtion becomes fact, when in actuality, it is pure fiction.