Anna Nicole Leaves Behind Legal Tangle

(CBS/AP)  With major legal issues undecided, Anna Nicole Smith's legacy could take years to untangle and could leave her baby daughter with millions of dollars or nothing at all.

Smith's battle over late husband J. Howard Marshall II's oil fortune with the family of his son grinds on in Texas. And there is a pending class action suit seeking unspecified damages against Smith and TrimSpa Inc., alleging the company's marketing of a weight-loss pill with Smith as spokeswoman was false and misleading.

Two men are also contesting the paternity of Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn. At an emergency hearing Friday in Los Angeles, a judge refused to order an emergency DNA test of Smith's body, but he ordered that the body be preserved until a hearing in 10 days, attorneys said.

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Experts say the eventual custody decision could determine the child's inheritance.

For now, her daughter is believed to be in the Bahamas in the care of a family friend, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports. But it will be weeks before anyone knows what killed her mother.

James Neavitt, an attorney for Smith's partner Howard K. Stern, has said that his client has custody of the 5-month-old. He said that although Smith and Stern were not legally married, he is the legal father of Dannielynn.

"Right now he's the father. That's the presumption," Neavitt said. "He's on the birth certificate, Anna said he was the father. He said he was the father. The administrative process in the Bahamas says he's the father and until somebody comes in and tries to show different with evidence, he's the father."

If it is determined Stern is the biological father and if he was legally married to Smith — which has yet to be established — Stern, not Dannielynn, would likely inherit Smith's estate, experts say.

Smith's former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, says he is the girl's father.

If Smith and the biological father were not married and Smith left no will, the father and child likely would split her assets, according to Christopher Cline, an estate planning lawyer with the firm of Holland and Knight.

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Attorney: Stern Has Custody Of Anna's Baby

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"It's a really large legal quagmire," said Cline, who enumerated some of the many questions hanging in the balance.

"I've never seen a case with more moving parts," he said, comparing the legal morass in its complexity with unraveling the estate of billionaire Howard Hughes — albeit with less money involved.

But Friday, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor said that he had a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and may be her infant daughter's father. The new claim is by Prince Frederick von Anhalt.

Cline outlined a series of crucial questions that range from the paternity of the child to Smith's country of residency and, most importantly, whether she had a will. If there was a will, Cline said, questions would arise about where it was drafted and signed. If she did not have a will, the laws of her country of residence would apply.

She had been living in the Bahamas recently and gave birth to her daughter there in September.

The baby was being cared for in the Bahamas by the mother of Shane Gibson, the Bahamian immigration minister who is a close friend of Smith's, People magazine reported on its Web site, citing unidentified sources.

A visibly shaken Gibson declined comment as he was leaving his office Thursday night, and he has not responded to several messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment.

Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, said she had no plans to press for custody.

"I want her to be with her father whichever that one is, but I want to be involved in her life," Arthur said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Other questions that will need to be answered are whether she was married at the time of her death, and how her death affects the lawsuit still pending against her late husband's estate.

Experts in Texas, where Smith fought for millions of dollars in inheritance, said the court battles will go on.

"The claims will survive to her estate," said Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, a South Texas College of Law professor who has followed the complicated series of lawsuits involving Smith and the family of her dead husband.

"In criminal cases like we had with Ken Lay, where the defendant died, it was over," he said. "But in civil cases where the claim is for money, your estate and the heirs you have from the estate are able to continue the litigation in the name of the representatives of the estate."

E. Pierce Marshall, her late husband's son who had been fighting her over his father's estate, died in June. But the Marshall family vowed to continue the fight.

Family lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan of Los Angeles, who has handled many celebrity paternity cases, said he believes Stern initially will receive custody of the child because he is listed on the birth certificate.

"The paternity test should be expedited," he said, "because if he is not the bio dad he has no rights to custody. But I predict there will be a will saying that Howard K. Stern is the father."

He added that another complication could arise if Stern was the lawyer who drew up the will and may be listed as the executor.

"By law, he can't be both the executor and the beneficiary," Kaplan said.

The Smith saga has been filled with so many deaths, Kaplan said, that lawyers are beginning to talk about a curse on the litigation. Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.

[lily_ayanami]

It's sad that she died, but I'm getting tired of seeing all these stories about her...

[bluestardad]

What has Anna ever done in her own right to ever earn this much publicity? She danced on a pole, married a sick old rich man, had a couple kids, fought for more of her husbands money after he died! She has done nothing of her own!
Her death looks like a professional Hit!
she did not take the verbal warning!
she did not take the warning of her sons death
she did not take another verbal warning!
She got hit!

[kevzgrl]

This story has a little of everything: greed, pathos, mystery, and immense BOREDOM. The woman was famous for being famous - no talent, no class, no taste and the way everybody is so preoccupied with this is disgusting.

My guess is that the autopsy will show drugs killed her, administered in the library by the lawer with a syringe... shades of CLUE.

The one who I really feel the most sorry for is that poor little baby, who will become an object of a legal tug-of-war between two selfish, greedy men who used and abused Anna Nicole for their own gain, and the lawyers who are trying to make as much money off this as they can. Anyone who thinks they are doing this for love of the child is more than a little naive. Let Anna Nicole rest in peace, let the baby be raised by someone who truly loves her and for God's sake, let this story go away!!! I turned off Headline News because it has become the "All Anna Nicole-All The Time" Network the last two days - thank God CBS has other stories to cover also.

[czarhezar]

No pills had been found in her stomach; there was no immediate indication of a drug overdose and an autopsy had found no signs of physical injury on the body.

This sure sounds like a good plot for CSI Miami, doesn't it?

[froggygirl77]

I think that the whole situation is bad... Sure AnnaNicole deserved alot of the flack that she got. She loved the lime light, she had multiple affairs. But something fishy is going on with that lawyer of hers. Something fishy is going on with her death and that of her sons. The worse thing is that everyone is trying to captalize on her death. Only adding more speculation, more gossip. This poor child of hers, no matter who her father turns out to be, will have to live down not only her mothers life but also her death.

[feelfree1]

CBS has appears to have completely abandoned news coverage, in favor of info-tainment?

CBS editors: is the death of a greedy vacuous *** really more important than the fraud based war brought to us by Doug Feith, and his "Office of Special Plans", leading us to a disasterous war, costing billions or trillions of dollars, and lakes of blood?

Is this story really more important than the coming illegal war of aggression against Iran?

As a news agency, I would say that CBS is a cruel joke, but the fact that CBS is so deeply culpable in promoting the war crimes and terrorism of the Bush regime, makes it very difficult to laugh about it.

[stresa70395]

Hi, to the first person, how can you make a joke about Nicoles baby, she has no mother now and then you have the money hungry lawyer that was next to her at every awakening moment. She looked totally not in controll of anything she was saying.

[agnim]

RIP, Anna Nicole.
You left too soon.