Anna Nicole's tot left penniless; gets none of oil fortune

Smith, the voluptuous ex-Playboy model who died of a drug overdose in 2007, had been married to oil tycoon for 14 months. She married Marshall in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died 14 months later.

What Smith claimed?
Within weeks of her husband's death, Smith had begun a lengthy and ongoing legal battle against his son, E. Pierce Marshall, who died in 2006, for half of her late husband's $1.6 billion estate.

While Marshall, who had given Smith $6 million in gifts, didn't make additional provisions for her in his will, Smith claimed the elder Marshall promised her more than $300 million. However, there was no written documentation to prove her claims.

Apparently not happy with Friday’s ruling, Smith’s estate attorney Kent Richland said he would appeal the latest ruling.

Court rules against Smith
On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Smith's estate i.e., Dannielynn Birkhead, her three and half-year-old daughter with Larry Birkhead, should get none of the more than $300 million she claimed that oil tycoon Marshall meant to leave her on his death.

During the hearing, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously that federal courts must honor a 2001 decision by a probate court in Houston that favored Marshall's son E. Pierce Marshall and found that Marshall did not intend to leave Smith any money after his death, according to UsMagazine.com.

The panel also ruled that any later rulings promising money to Smith should be ignored.

Marshall v. Marshall
Friday’s decision is the latest development in a long running Marshall v. Marshall battle, which began with the 1995 death of billionaire Marshall at the age of 90.

Apparently not happy with Friday’s ruling, late model and E! reality star Smith’s estate attorney Kent Richland said he would appeal against the latest ruling, according to People.com.

Richland said he will take the battle to the entire 9th Circuit panel, and then, if necessary, to the U.S. Supreme Court, the magazine reports. Unfortunately, all the parties involved in the case directly have died--Marshall died in 1995, his son died in 2006, and Smith died in 2008.

"It's been a very sort of sad story – so many people involved in this case have died," People quoted Richland as saying. "This is not the final step," he vows, "This is only an intermediate court's ruling."

Pierce is survived by his widow and two sons, while Smith has left daughter Dannielynn as her sole beneficiary. The little girl has been legally named the sole heir to the potential fortune of her late mother.