In one of the most high profile and protracted cases involving a will contest, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the heir of Anna Nicole Smith will not receive any assets from the estate of the tycoon that Smith had married one year before he passed away in 1995.

As you might guess, probate cases rarely go to the United States Supreme Court. The route that this case took to come before the Supreme Court actually turned to be the central issue in the case. Rather than an appeal from a state court that handles probate matters the case was a review of a federal bankruptcy case. In that case the bankruptcy judge decided that Smith should receive funds derived from the estate. The Supreme Court determined that this decision was outside the scope of authority of the bankruptcy judge.

Initially Anna Nicole Smith brought a lawsuit in state court seeking a portion of her late husband's estate. While she claimed that he had promised her a significant portion of his assets, Smith was not named in his will. In her lawsuit she alleged that the son of her late husband conspired to deny her more than $400 million which her husband had promised her. She lost her lawsuit in state court and was not granted a portion of the estate.

After that decision Smith filed for bankruptcy in a federal bankruptcy court. The son brought a claim in that court accusing Smith of defamation. She filed a counter-claim arguing that he had conspired to deny her assets from the estate. The bankruptcy judge agreed with her counter-claim and awarded her $475 million. Basically the same amount she had sought from the estate initially.

It was this decision by the bankruptcy judge that the Supreme Court ruled went beyond that judge's authority.

Source: The Los Angeles Times "Supreme Court rejects Anna Nicole Smith case" David Savage, June 24, 2011