that 3-Judge panel's ruling is what the US Supreme Court overruled last year (or more specifically, parts of it)
NY Times wrote Feb 9, 2007:
"Ms. Smith was at one time awarded $474 million by a federal court. Then the award was reduced to just under $89 million. That decision was later overturned altogether and that decision was appealed to the Supreme Court.
In May of last year, the justices ruled that the dispute properly belonged in federal court, giving Ms. Smith another chance to collect millions. In June, the younger Mr. Marshall died unexpectedly at 67, just weeks after his Supreme Court defeat.
But his widow and heir, Elaine Marshall, carried on the legal dispute with Ms. Smith.
The case is now in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and it is likely to continue in the name of Ms. Smith?s infant daughter."
Linda Deutsch, AP Feb 12, 2007:
"It also was not clear how her death affects the lawsuit still pending against her late husband's estate. Experts in Texas, where Smith fought for millions of dollars in inheritance, said the court battles will go on.
"The claims will survive to her estate," said Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, a South Texas College of Law professor who has followed the complicated series of lawsuits involving Smith and the family of her dead husband.
In criminal cases where the defendant dies, the case is over, Rhodes said. "But in civil cases where the claim is for money, your estate and the heirs you have from the estate are able to continue the litigation in the name of the representatives of the estate," he said.
E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Smith's late husband who had been fighting her over his father's estate, died in June. But the Marshall family vowed to continue the fight."
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On Mr. Stern--- the conspiracy stuff started before the autopsy did, before the formal police inquest in Daniel's death. No surprise. "Follow the money" and you see the Stern conspiracy argument weaker than many. At most, Stern will get some money as custodian of the baby. Sale of pictures, residuals, film rights, and memorabilia will add up, even if no inheritance money coming in. But it's reported Stern and Anna planned a formal marriage shortly. No sense to facilitate her death now. Just wait a few weeks----he then woulda got much more as a spousal heir.
"It's been a kind of poor, white-trash, squalid melodrama." Camille Paglia
update:
up to seven claiming to be dad now!
tho in 2000 Prince Anhalt "unsucessfully tried to sue the makers of Viagra, claiming the drug had rendered him impotent unless he used it."
Gawker claims TV tabloid show paid Stern million bucks for interview today!
TMZ has picture of her refridge with big stash of methadone in it. Rumors claim that Stern only one with prescription for it. That true, then Daniel's daddy back in Texas can sue estate for wrongful death!
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Did The 'Post' Go Halfsies On Howard K. Stern Exclusive?
The tabloid T.V. get of the week is Howard K. Stern, Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer and potential baby-daddy?already Entertainment Tonight has him locked down.
The word on the street today is that Entertainment Tonight paid a million bucks for the interview. But the weirder rumor on the street is that the New York Post put up half the cash for exclusives to the exclusives. Should such a crazy thing be true, well, at 25 cents a paper, that interview would have to move two million units to pay for itself. Which is more than three times as many papers as they sell a day. Rumor true? Untrue? Drop us a line.
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'People' Pays $1M for Pics of Anna Nicole's Wedding/Suffering
You have to hand it to Anna Nicole Smith: despite the sudden, tragic death of her son Daniel just days after the birth of her baby girl, she seems to have made quite the comeback. Financially speaking, that is. Immediately following Daniel's death, she had Getty Images broker the final photos of her son and daughter, taken hours before his death, which were eventually sold to In Touch for a nice $375K or so. But that's not enough to assuage this woman's suffering! So last week, when she had her emotional, fake wedding to her lawyer Howard K. Stern (who also claims to be the father of her new child), she had someone whip out the PowerShot and take a whole new round of snaps. And wouldn't you know it, Getty Images came to the celebrity weeklies with 30 images, ready to broker an offer. The lucky winner? People, who is said to have forked over $1 million for the not-wedding wedding photos in a classy little bidding war (Radar confirms the sale).
So what's People ed Larry Hackett getting for his money? Pictures of Anna in a wedding dress with Stern, posing on the catamaran where they wed, and several images where sad little 3-week-old Dannielynn is being held. So what makes these banal shots worth $1 million? In one pic, Anna is supposedly holding the baby while wearing pasties. Apparently, they're saving the one with the titty tassles for Cookie.
