Anna Nicole's Estate Loses $450M Inheritance Fight

Appellate court agrees with earlier Texas ruling

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 19, 2010 5:07 PM CDT

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Anna Nicole's Estate Loses $450M Inheritance Fight — In this Dec. 1, 2004 file photo, Anna Nicole Smith poses for a photo as she arrives for the VH1 "Big in '04" awards in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file)

Anna Nicole Smith's estate won't inherit any money from J. Howard Marshall, the oil magnate Smith married a year before his death. In a case that's dragged on for nearly 15 years, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled today that a Texas probate court correctly found Marshall didn't intend to leave Smith anything. The former Playmate, who died in 2007, had laid claim to $450 million in a separate case in bankruptcy court, KTVU reports. Her heir is her 3-year-old daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead.
(Read more Anna Nicole Smith stories.)