Playboy Model Wins Estate Suit

A federal judge Thursday awarded former Playboy Playmate and model Anna Nicole Smith $88 million in her bitter legal battle against the son of her late, 90-year-old husband, J. Howard Marshall over his estate.

U.S. District Judge David Carter, ruling in a dispute between Smith and E. Pierce Marshall, son of the late oil tycoon, said Smith was entitled to $44.2 million in compensatory damages and an equal amount of punitive damages.

Thursday's ruling came after Pierce Marshall challenged a previous federal bankruptcy court decision that awarded Smith $475 million of his father's money.

Carter ruled that Marshall's son had interfered with Smith's attempt to get part of her late husband's oil fortune, estimated at hundreds of million of dollars.

"The evidence of willfulness, maliciousness and fraud is overwhelming," Carter wrote.

He found that Pierce Marshall and others spied on the couple and controlled Smith's access to her husband in the days before he died.

"This is a complete victory for my client," Smith's attorney Philip Boesch told reporters outside court. "This shows me that even if you have an army of lawyers and unlimited funds you don't always win."

He added that Smith was happy with the ruling and "pleased to be getting on with her life."

Boesch said the new ruling shows the world that "love has no age limits."

Pierce Marshall said in a statement that his father would be "appalled" by the decision and vowed to appeal the matter "to the highest levels necessary" to have it overturned.

Smith, who gained international stardom through her work in Playboy and as a model for Guess? jeans, met Marshall at Gigi's, a Houston topless club. She married him when she was 24 and he was 89.

She has fought lengthy court battles in California and Texas over the fortune left behind by her late husband, who died in August 1995, 14 months after they wed.

Before his death, his estate went into a trust that divided his fortune among charities, a foundation, his son and other individuals, but gave nothing to Smith. She sued Pierce Marshall to get part of it.

Carter's ruling said Smith had a reasonable expectation that she would receive a portion of her husband's estate and that she would receive it without interference.

Marshall and Smith were absent when the ruling was issued.

A year ago, a Texas jury concluded Smith had no right to any money.