Anna Nicole Smith's estate loses bid for ex J. Howard Marshall's millions

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- An Orange Country District Court has blocked Anna Nicole Smith's estate's final attempt at getting millions of dollars from her ex-husband's son E. Pierce Marshall's estate.

In court documents released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter denied Smith's daughter Dannielynn Birkhead's lawyer's attempt to win $44 million in sanctions from the Marshall family and dismissed as moot the request to dismiss the case.

After Smith's untimely death in 2007 Birkhead's lawyers carried on with the legal proceedings, which began after oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall -- who was married to Smith for a year when he was 89 and she was 26 -- died in 1995. In his will, J. Howard Marshall left his $1.6 billion estate to his son E. Pierce Marshall and nothing to Smith -- real name Vicky Lynn Marshall.

The reality television star attempted to modify the will, claiming the billionaire had promised to leave her part of his fortune, but a Texas jury determined he was mentally fit when he wrote the document.

Litigation has dragged on for almost 20 years since J. Howard Marshall's death. Tuesday's decision marks the end of the case, which according to Forbes, "triggered broad changes in bankruptcy law," stemming from 2011's {i:Stern v. Marshall. Smith, who had filed for bankruptcy, was awarded $475 million over E. Pierce Marshall's "improper interference with his father's estate" in bankruptcy court, after a Texas probate court had dismissed the claim. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling bankruptcy courts could not issue that type of judgement.

Smith's estate lawyer Phill Boesch then sued for sanctions alleging E. Pierce Marshall had used delaying tactics that would have allowed the late actress to win the case in California before the Texas ruling came out.

E. Pierce Marshall died in 2006 and the estate he inherited form his father is tangled in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service overly reportedly owed taxes. Smith's daughter Dannielyyn is currently 7 years old and lives with her father Larry Birkhead, in Louisville.