anna nicole smith
The Number One Judgment in the United States
- “With a paucity of direct evidence…Boesch decided to present to the court a steady accretion of circumstantial evidence – hundreds of peripheral documents and hours of testimony that would gradually erode [the other side’s] initial advantage.”
US Lawyers Weekly - “In the end – after months of discovery and depositions and seven days of trial – Boesch’s strategy paid off.”
US Lawyers Weekly - One Against A Billion – Anna’s Daughter Dannielynn
The Equalizer March 2007 - Read the Facts Decided in Court, Not the PR Spin:
U.S. Supreme Court Opinion
5/1/06, in Anna’s favor reinstating Judge Carter’s Judgment.Hon. Samuel Bufford
Judgment, dated 12/29/00, awarding in excess of $474 Million.Hon. David Carter
Findings of Fact and Judgment, 3/7/02, awarding in excess of $88 Million.
Update
After two rulings by the United States Supreme Court, the case has been remanded to Judge Carter of the United States District Court, where the plaintiff Motion for Sanctions, based on the Findings of Fact of the District Court, is scheduled for hearing in March 2012
By Ann W. O’Neill – LA Times (source)
September 28, 2000
Judge Awards Anna Nicole Smith $450 Million of Oil Estate
Court: Ruling that billionaire husband intended to take care of her after his death sets stage for Texas legal battle against stepson.
A federal bankruptcy judge in Los Angeles awarded Playboy pinup and Guess jeans model Anna Nicole Smith nearly $450 million on Wednesday, finding that she was deprived of the estate her late husband intended to leave her.
Judge Samuel L. Bufford ruled that Smith’s stepson deliberately interfered with her ability to inherit her share of an estimated $2-billion fortune amassed by the richest oilman in Texas. The judge also ruled that Smith was entitled to punitive damages to be calculated later.
Bufford awarded Smith $449,754,134–the amount the stock rose in her late husband’s company, Koch Industries Inc., during their brief marriage.
The ruling comes on the eve of a probate trial in Houston, pitting the 32-year-old Smith, also known as Vickie Lynn Marshall, against her 64-year-old stepson, E. Pierce Marshall. Jury selection already has begun, setting the stage for a Texas soap opera about the May-December romance between a comely dancer and a lonely billionaire.
After J. Howard Marshall II saw Smith at Gigi’s, a Houston topless joint, she became “the light” of his life, according to testimony at a five-day trial in federal court last year.
“I think the most compelling evidence was the testimony that her husband loved her more than any other human being on the planet–to the point where he tried to adopt her and marry her at the same time,” said Smith’s lawyer, Philip W. Boesch Jr.
Lawyers for Pierce Marshall could not be reached.
Smith testified last year that the younger Marshall defrauded her of between $556 million and $820 million she was entitled to as her share of her late husband’s estate.
The judge agreed that her husband had every intention of taking care of Smith after his death.
Her victory in bankruptcy court is but a first step in a complex legal scenario. It declares her right to inherit from Marshall’s estate, and says she can claim any future inheritance as a personal asset. In effect, the ruling clears the way for her to claim half of the Marshall fortune in Texas probate court.
“There is no doubt in this case that Vickie Lynn Marshall has an expectancy to receive a substantial portion of J. Howard Marshall II’s wealth after his death,” Bufford found. “Marshall repeatedly told her that she would receive half of what he owned after his death. However, [he] never made a will with any provision for her.”
And she never signed a prenuptial agreement.
The court battle has lasted far longer than the marriage did–four years versus 14 months.
