Anna Nicole Smith Leaves Behind a Legal Tangle

Linda Deutsch (The Associated Press) has written Anna Nicole SmithLeaves Behind a Legal Tangle, (February 12, 2007) discussing, amongother topics, the estate complications left in the wake of Anna Nicole’s death.

Here is an excerpt:

With major legal issues undecided,Anna Nicole Smith’s legacy could take years to untangle and could leave herbaby daughter with millions of dollars or nothing at all.***

If Smith left no will, and if sheand Stern were not married, then the baby’s father and child likely would splither assets, according to Christopher Cline,an estate-planning lawyer with the firm of Holland and Knight.

“It’s a really large legalquagmire,” Cline said.

If there was a will, questionswould arise about where it was drafted and signed. If she did not have a will,the laws of her country of residence would apply.

Smith had been living in theBahamas recently and gave birth to her daughter there in September.

It also was not clear how her deathaffects the lawsuit still pending against her late husband’s estate. Experts inTexas, where Smith fought for millions of dollars in inheritance, said thecourt battles will go on.

“The claims will survive toher estate,” said Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes, a South TexasCollege of Law professor who has followed the complicated series of lawsuitsinvolving Smith and the family of her dead husband.

In criminal cases where thedefendant dies, the case is over, Rhodes said. “But in civil cases wherethe claim is for money, your estate and the heirs you have from the estate areable to continue the litigation in the name of the representatives of theestate,” he said.