Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – The bickering over Anna Nicole Smith spiraled into a postmortem legal war Wednesday, with judges on both coasts issuing rulings and a parade of lawyers fighting for control of the body.
At the end of the day, though, Smith’s remains still were at the medical examiner’s office, and a judge here said the dispute could be lengthy.
“We’re going to have hearings, as many hearings as we need,” Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin said at the start of afternoon proceedings. “This is just a warm-up.”
At least three people are seeking control of Smith’s body – her longtime companion Howard K. Stern; her estranged mother, Vergie Arthur; and photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims to have fathered her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn.
Stern claims he is executor of Smith’s will and wants to have her buried next to her son in the Bahamas; Arthur wants her daughter buried in her home state of Texas; and Birkhead simply wants to prove he is the father of Dannielynn, who potentially could inherit millions.
For now, though, the judge said Smith’s body would stay where it was. “This body belongs to me right now,” he said. “This body’s not leaving Broward County till I make the ruling.”
Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a hotel. She was a Playboy Playmate of the Year and the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his fortune since his death in 1995.
On Wednesday morning, a case filed by Birkhead prompted a brief hearing before Circuit Judge Lawrence Korda in the court’s family division. Korda ordered Smith’s body temporarily retained by the morgue, following a California court’s order last week for DNA testing requested by Birkhead.
A Los Angeles judge, however, later Wednesday lifted the request that the body be held for testing.
It appeared the case would become solely under Seidlin’s jurisdiction in probate court in Florida. When discussion resumes this morning, the judge will hear more of the sordid drama that has evolved since Smith’s death.
Custody of Dannielynn is being fought, too. A Bahamian judge issued an injunction Tuesday preventing the baby from being taken out of the country until the custody case is resolved.
