Anna Smith’s Rival, Pierce Marshall Dies | Women Lifestyle, Fashion, Health, Beauty and Personality

Anna Smith’s Rival, Pierce Marshall Dies
Category : Women Gossip, Women Personality

Anna Smith Rival, Pierce Marshall Dies E. Pierce Marshall, man who battled for years with former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith over his fatherâ€™s oil fortune, unexpectedly dies earlier this week in the Dallas area from a brief and extremely aggressive infection, his spokesman said Friday. He was 67. “The family would politely request that their privacy be respected during this extremely difficult time as they grapple with this devastating loss,” the statement said. “Mr. Marshall leaves behind a legacy of being, first and foremost, a remarkable husband, father and grandfather, a successful business visionary and a man of unrivaled perseverance and principle.”

The death in 1995 of his father, J. Howard Marshall, triggered a long-running legal battle with Smith, who married the oil tycoon a year earlier after meeting him while working as a topless dancer. She was 26 when they married; he was 89. Marshall was one of the wealthiest men in Texas, worth more than an estimated $1.6 billion. Smith claimed that her husband promised her half of his estate. The son said that more than $6 million in gifts she received was all his father left her.
Anna Nicole Smith eventually made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where last month it was decided that Smith’s case could be reexamined by a California federal appeals court that in 2004 overturned the $88.5 million she was awarded in 2002 by a federal district judge. That amount was what was left over from the original $474 million judgment she got from a federal bankruptcy court. The case has had twists and turns. At one point, Smith won a $474-million judgment, which was cut to about $89 million and eventually reduced to zero.

What happens next in the case could not be determined Friday night, it is unclear how Marshall’s death will affect the legal proceedings over his father’s fortune. The saga was set to return to a California court before Marshall’s death.
Smith said in a posting on her Web site that she would not comment on Marshallâ€™s death â€œout of respect for his familyâ€™s request for privacy.â€
The question of whether Smith was entitled to any of her husband’s fortune was first brought before the Harris County probate court. Smith claimed she had been verbally promised half of the estate.
A native of Dallas, E. Pierce Marshall managed his family’s extensive business holdings and served on the board of Koch Industries Inc., a commodities conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., that operates refineries and pipelines, trades commodities and manufactures pulp, paper and fibers.
“His leadership and loyalty have been instrumental in the success and growth of our company,” Chairman and CEO Charles G. Koch told the AP.

Last month’s ruling reinstated Smith’s claim, but there was no guarantee she would collect any money. “Although he lavished gifts and significant sums of money on Vickie during their courtship and marriage, J. Howard did not include anything for Vickie in his will,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote. The case wound through the federal courts before the Supreme Court ruled in May that the matter was not the exclusive jurisdiction of the Texas court, allowing Smith another shot at the money.
She said there were accusations that Marshall “engaged in forgery, fraud, and overreaching to gain control of his father’s assets” and, on the other side, that Smith had defamed her former stepson. “I will continue to fight to clear my name in California federal court. That is a promise that Vickie and her lawyers can take to the bank,” Marshall said in a statement after the decision.