Former Playmate of the Year Anna Nicole Smith won from the U.S. Supreme Court
on Monday a new chance to collect millions of dollars she claims her late Texas
oil tycoon husband promised her.

The justices unanimously overturned an appeals court ruling that the blond widow
was entitled to nothing because federal courts lacked jurisdiction to hear
claims that are also involved in state probate hearings.

The high court sent the case back to the federal appeals court in California for
more proceedings in the long-running legal battle involving the former Playboy
centerfold who also had her own reality television show.

Smith was 26 when she married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994. He was 89.
They met three years earlier when she was working as a topless dancer in
Houston.

Marshall was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, worth more than an estimated
$1.6 billion. His death in 1995, after 14 months of marriage, triggered a legal
battle between Smith and his son, E. Pierce Marshall.

She claimed that her husband promised her half of his estate. The son said the
more than $6 million in gifts she received in 1994 was all his father wanted her
to get.

In Texas, a state probate court ruled that E. Pierce Marshall was entitled to
his father’s estate.

But in California, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled for Smith and awarded her
$474 million because of her claims the son had interfered with the inheritance
she was supposed to receive.

A federal district court judge then cut Smith’s award to $88 million. But the
appeals court ruled she was entitled to nothing because federal courts lack
jurisdiction in probate disputes.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in the ruling for the Supreme Court that the
appeals court was wrong and the district court properly asserted jurisdiction
over Smith’s claims against the son.

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