Anna Nicole Smith's Adversary Dies

June 24, 2006, 9:19AM
Marshall dies before estate fight ends
Spent more than a decade fighting to keep ex-stripper Smith from share of his dad's wealth


By ZEKE MINAYA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

E. Pierce Marshall, whose court battles with former Playboy playmate and stripper Anna Nicole Smith over the fortune of his oil tycoon father reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, has died, a family spokesman said Friday.

The 67-year-old Marshall ?- whose fight to remain the sole heir of Houston oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II stretched on for more than a decade ?- died after "a brief and extremely aggressive infection," family spokesman David Margulies wrote in a statement.

Marshall's clashes with his blond, buxom former stepmom were operatic. From the stand she would yell, cry and point at Marshall, accusing him of interfering with her marriage.

Smith, Playboy magazine's 1993 "Playmate of the Year," met J. Howard Marshall II at the club where she worked as a topless dancer. Smith, who was 26 at the time, soon married the 89-year-old oil baron. He died 14 months later of pneumonia.

"It's a horrible situation, so condolences to the family, but we have no comment on it at this time," Smith's attorney Philip Boesch told the Associated Press on Friday night.

Marshall's attorney, Rusty Hardin, could not be reached for comment Friday night.

What happens next in the case could not be determined Friday night. The saga was set to return to a California court before Marshall's death.

The question of whether Smith was entitled to any of her husband's fortune was first brought before the Harris County probate court. Smith claimed she had been verbally promised half of the estate.

But Marshall's will, which was last updated in 1994, had made E. Pierce Marshall the only beneficiary. Smith accused the younger Marshall of having altered his father's will.

A Harris County jury awarded Smith nothing. But, in a separate ruling, a California bankruptcy judge awarded Smith $475 million.

The case wound through the federal courts before the Supreme Court ruled in May that the matter was not the exclusive jurisdiction of the Texas court, allowing Smith another shot at the money.