Does Anna Nicole Smith's will contest provide any lessons for the rest of us?

Posted on Feb 11, 2009

The Anna Nicole Smith will contest is celebrating its second anniversary and drawing another round of commentary.  A commentator at Townhall.com urges that this case sets a bad example for families everywhere.  I disagree.

Let me blunt.  From everything I have read about this case it appears to me Anna Nicole Smith was a gold digger and her husband knew it.  Her husband spent millions on her while he was alive.  He had other plans for when he died.  He went to his lawyers, had his will changed, and deliberately left her nothing.  She hired some probate lawyers, sued in Texas and lost.  After declaring bankruptcy she sued in a California bankruptcy court invoking artfully alleging her case wasn't really probate litigation or a will contest but rather the tort of interfering with her inheritance.  In other words, she found a way into federal court.  The bankruptcy court agreed with her and she was awarded about half a billion dollars.

Unsurprisingly, her husband's estate appealed.  The United States District Court cut the award by about three quarters.  It went up another level of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals who threw the case out saying it should never have left Texas.  Smith then appealed to the Supreme Court.  They sent it back to the Ninth Circuit.  It appears the case is dead.

So, as I see it, Smith filed a will contest but tried not to call it a will contest.  She, and later her estate, spent a ton of time and money pursuing a case she should lose.  It now appears she has.  In my opinion this will contest teaches us the facts of a case matter.  Meritorious cases will prevail and unmeritorious cases will fail.  It also teaches us that everybody gets their day in court.  That's the way it should be.

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The Grossman Law Firm, A.P.C. are Palm Springs, California probate lawyers.  We help probate estates in Riverside County, California.  We appear in the Palm Springs probate court for cases from Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Indio, Banning and Beaumont California. We appear in the Riverside probate court for cases in the area bounded by Temecula, Corona, and Hemet, California.  If you  would like more information on probate and trust administration then order our free book The Insider's Guide to California Probate and Trust Administration as well as our free DVD Probate a Will or Administer a Trust After the Death of a Loved One.