Anna Nicole Smith: Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over; Houston Judge Orders Former Stripper to Pay Attorneys' Fees

Houston, Texas Anna Nicole Smith has something new to cry about. Jurors didn't buy her story that she was promised half of her late husband's wealth and didn't buy her courtroom act, which frequently included crocodile tears.

Today a Houston judge gave Smith something to really cry about. In addition to losing her case the judge today signed a Final Judgment ordering that Smith pay the legal fees of her late husband's rightful heir, E. Pierce Marshall.

In the final judgment, signed today by Houston Probate Judge Mike Wood, Smith is ordered to pay Marshall $541,000 in legal fees. In addition, Marshall can collect an additional $100,000 in legal fees from Smith each time she files an unsuccessful appeal. Smith was also ordered to pay more than $20,000 in fees that were paid to a court appointed temporary administrator of her late husband's estate.

"Smith and her contingency fee plaintiffs lawyers thought my father was far wealthier than he really was," said Pierce Marshall. "They vastly overestimated his wealth and I am pleased that those inflated estimates were never allowed to go to the jury.

"The public has learned what our family has known for many years, that Smith was cruel to my father and was never his wife in the traditional sense. She worked hard to avoid being with my father but managed to call him constantly demanding more and more money. My father told close associates that the marriage had been a mistake and I believe he would have ended it had he lived.

"My father's wishes concerning our family business were clearly spelled out in six wills and seven trusts and in numerous conversations with a wide range of people who did not have a stake in the estate. Those who continue to pursue these frivolous claims are wasting their time and costing themselves money. Anna Nicole Smith and her attorneys are poorer today than they were when they started this litigation. You would think they would eventually learn from experience."

Anna Nicole Smith was represented in her defeat by: Tom Cunningham, Richard Zook, John Chapoton, John Powell and Kalli O'Malley of Cunningham, Zook, Darlow and Chapoton, L.L.P., Houston.

Another of Smith's attorneys, Diana E. Marshall (no relation), formerly of Schechter & Marshall, L.L.P., Houston., previously lost a multimillion-dollar defamation suit brought by E. Pierce Marshall on similar facts.

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