Anna Nicole Smith's Estate Denied Again: Judge Says Dannielynn Birkhead Won't Receive $44 Million

Judge rules there is no evident before the court to justify awarding sanctions to Smith's surviving family members

By Claudia Rosenbaum, Mike Vulpo Aug 20, 2014 8:37 PMTags
Anna Nicole Smith, 2004Denise Truscello/WireImage.com

After a near 20-year battle in the courtroom, a federal judge has ruled Anna Nicole Smith's estate will not receive tens of millions of dollars from the estate of E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Anna Nicole's billionaire husband, J. Howard Marshall ll.

Larry Birkhead, who had a relationship and fathered a child, Danielynn Birkhead, with Smith, was hopeful his legal team would receive a substantial amount of money in sanctions. Federal Judge David O. Carter, however, shot down the request and declared the case over.

Judge Carter ruled that there was "just no evidence before the court that justifies awarding sanctions against Pierce Marshall's estate."

He also pointed out that the case has extended for nearly five times the length of Anna Nicole and Howard Marshall's relationship and nearly 20 times the length of their marriage. They were married for 14 months. 

Michael Gerber/Corbis

He added the American taxpayer has supported the burden of this litigation for many years and it's time for this suit to no longer "drag its weary length before the court."

Oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall ll died in 1995. His will left his $1.6 billion estate to his son and nothing to Smith.

According to NBC News, Smith claimed her husband promised to leave her more than $300 million, in addition to the cash and gifts she received during their marriage.  A Houston jury ruled that Marshall was mentally fit when he wrote the will. 

Over the course of nearly 20 years, local and federal courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Smith's various attempts to overturn Marshall's will and trust in order to obtain money from his estate.

Smith, who died of an accidental drug overdose in February 2007, is survived by her daughter, Dannielynn. The 7-year-old appeared at the Kentucky Derby in May looking like a true Disney princess.

"[Dannielynn is] a very well-grounded nice young woman," Birkhead's attorney, Philip Boesch, recently told E! News. "And Larry is doing a great job as her father."