Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy late today rejected efforts by lawyer Howard K. Stern, executor for the estate off the late actress-model Anna Nicole Smith, to expedite the $88 million inheritance from the estate of her late husband, billionaire J. Howard Marshall. Stern was seeking the money for her surviving daughter Danielynn.
The Marshall family's longtime lawyer G. Eric Brunstad Jr. of Dechert said Kennedy's action returns the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, where numerous unresolved disputes over the award are still pending. ""We just sit and wait," said Brunstad Friday afternoon. Both J. Howard Marshall and his son Pierce have died, so Brunstad is representing the interests of Elaine Marshall, Pierce's widow.
Stern, who was once also Smith's boyfriend, had petitioned the high court to lift a stay that was holding up payment of the judgment pending the 9th Circuit's decision. Stern claimed that if the stay continued, Pierce Marshall's estate would dissipate its assets. "That didn't happen and isn't happening," says Brunstad. "There's no reason to interfere with the 9th Circuit's processes." Justice Kennedy apparently agreed.
In a separate matter, Stern was arrested on Thursday in California on charges of conspiring with two physicians to supply Smith with drugs. Smith died of an accidental overdose in 2007.
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