The elderly Texas billionaire who married Anna Nicole Smith in the last year of his life never intended to leave the former stripper any portion of his vast fortune, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Houston jury that said J. Howard Marshall was mentally fit and under no undue pressure when he wrote a will leaving nearly all of his $1.6 billion (Dh5.87 billion) estate to his son, E. Pierce Marshall, and nothing to Smith.
Smith said the elder Marshall promised her more than $300 million, even though there was no written documentation.
Kent Richland, a lawyer for Smith's estate, vowed to appeal the latest ruling.
The decision — if it holds up — is bad news for Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and their three-year-old daughter, Dannielynn. The child was named Smith's heir in 2008 after she died of a drug overdose at 39 at a Florida hotel.
