Anna Nicole Smith Case Pending in U.S. Supreme Court

Ralph Whitten (Senator Allen A. Sekt Endowed Chair in Law, Creighton University School of Law) recently published his article entitled A Bunny’s Tale: The Impact of a Playboy Playmate on Federal Jurisdiction, Working Paper Series (2011). The abstract available on SSRN is below:

In this article, Professor Ralph Whitten tells you everything you always wanted to know (and then some) about Marshall v. Marshall, now pending in the United States Supreme Court. The article discusses the nuances of bankruptcy jurisdiction and the probate exception to federal jurisdiction arising in Anna Nicole Smith’s bankruptcy proceeding. Anna Nicole Smith was a model and celebrity who married oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall in 1994. Almost immediately after her husband died the next year, she and her much older step-son, E. Pierce Marshall, became embroiled in litigation over her right to inherit half of an estate with an estimated value of $1.6 billion dollars. While the Texas probate proceedings were pending, Anna filed bankruptcy in California in 1996 after a default judgment for $830,000 was entered against her in a suit brought by her former nanny, Marira Antonia Cerrato alleging sexual harassment.

Special thanks to Kelly Lynn Anders (Director of Communications & Diversity, Creighton University School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.