While I like to tell my clients that an efficient probate in California takes between 7 to 10 months from start to finish, some estates are just meant for controversy.  This happens more frequently when there is a blended family; when there is a step-mother or step-father; and when children are not friendly.

I am not sure that having the best estate planning in the world would have been helpful in Texas oilman J. Howard Marshall’s case.  Not when he left the wife who he happened to be married to out of the mix and her name was Anna Nicole Smith.

For those who need a recap, here it goes.  Marshall was 89 years old when he married Smith who was a 26 years old bride in 1994.  Fourteen months later he died.  Smith attempted to be an heir to half of his estate despite the fact that he had estate planning documents that left everything to his son, Pierce.

In 2001, there was a nearly 6 month jury trial in Houston that found that Pierce was the legal heir.  Smith later filed for bankruptcy in California and the federal bankruptcy judge awarded her slightly less than $450 million from Marshall’s estate finding that there was tortuous interference by Pierce Marshall in his father’s estate planning.

The bankruptcy decision was appealed by Pierce Marshall to a federal district court in California.  Ultimately in essence that court reduced the award to Smith to $88.5 million.  Next, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the awards by holding that neither the bankruptcy court nor the federal district court had the jurisdiction to rule on Marshall’s estate because it was essentially a matter for the Texas probate courts.

From the 9^th Circuit, the matter went to the United States Supreme Court which decided in 2006 that the federal courts can have some jurisdiction over probate matters.  On Friday, March 19, a panel of the U.S. 9^th Circuit Court of Appeal held that Marshall’s will was valid and free of illegal coercion by his son Pierce.

As most reading this are aware, Anna Nicole Smith died in 2007 and Pierce Marshall died in 2006.   

The case may not be over.  The attorney for Smith’s estate stated that he will appeal to the entire 9^th Circuit Panel.