Anna Nicole's heir won't get oil fortune

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.