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"Howard wanted me to inherit", Anna Nicole Smith Says.
26 Oct 2005
Anna Nicole Smith would never give up fighting in court for the inheritance she claims her late husband wanted her to have.
The 37-year-old busty blonde has declared she didn’t marry Howard J. Marshall in 1994 for money and just wishes her husband was still alive today, according to Contactmusic.
"I just wish he were still alive. I'm battling for him. I am doing it for Howard. And I am doing it for my 19-year-old son Daniel", Smith said.
"I hope justice will prevail. Howard would be proud that I didn't give up", the former Playboy star added.
Anna Nicole Smith’s appeal to the Superior Court for a piece of her late husband’s estate is to be heard by US Superior Court.
Smith has been battling E. Pierce Marshall in court ever since her husband of one year, 89-year-old Texas oil baron J. Howard Marshall II, died in 1995.
In her early 20s, Smith had a variety of low-paying jobs, to support her son Daniel.
While working as an exotic dancer, she met oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall, who frequently patronized her place of work. With Marshall’s money, Smith had cosmetic surgery to increase her breast size.
Smith and the billionaire Marshall finally married on June 27, 1994. She was 26 at the time, and Marshall was 89. By most accounts, Anna Nicole had other boyfriends and was generally indifferent to Marshall, with whom she never lived.
Within weeks after J. Howard's death on August 4, 1995, Smith squared off against his son, E. Pierce Marshall, for half of her late husband's $1.6 billion estate. Although J. Howard was, according to his employees, crazy about her, he did not include her in his trust and will, which he updated weeks after their marriage.
Smith claimed J. Howard verbally promised her half of his estate if she married him. In September, 2000, a Los Angeles bankruptcy judge awarded Smith a staggering $449,754,134.
Pierce appealed, and in July 2001, Houston judge Mike Wood vacated that award and ordered Anna Nicole to pay over $1 million in fees and expenses to Pierce's legal team. In March 2002, she was awarded $88 million.
In December 2004, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the March 2002 decision, saying that Smith is not one of J. Howard Marshall's heirs. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in September of 2005 to hear the appeal of that decision.
Smith's lawyer, Howard K. Stern, told Associated Press that his client planned to be at the Supreme Court early next year, when her case would be heard. "She's very excited. She will be attending arguments — there's no question about that," he said.
Source : softpedia
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