CALIFORNIA PROBATE CENTER

The Authority for Probate Litigation and Estate Planning in California

When Gold Diggers Attack – Wives That Marry for the Money

Posted on | March 31, 2010 | No Comments

The unavoidable probate litigation news this month was that Anna Nichole Smith (whose real name in was used in the pleadings: Vickie Lynn Marshall) lost on appeal in her claim to the J. Howard Marshall estate estimated at $1.6 billion. The litigation went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the former stripper and Playboy model watched the probate litigators plead her case. Apparently, the plea worked, because the Supreme Court sent the appeal back to Texas for “reconsideration.” It was under that reconsideration that Smith lost, with the Court holding that the Texas Probate Court’s fact findings should have been given preclusive effect on the issues decided.

California has a similar rule – in fact a California Superior Probate Court has exclusive jurisdiction over some causes of action. California Probate Code § 7050. Another Court in California may not render a second opinion on the same set of facts as a Probate Court except in very limited circumstances, which is what the Texas Court was ruling upon. On a somewhat related note, prosecutors released a bizarre tape of an apparently drugged Anna Nichole Smith in an attempt to prove that Howard Stern was manipulating her. . .

Category: celebrity
Tags: > > > > > > > >

Comments

Comments are closed.