The legal battles surrounding former Playmate Anna Nicole Smith’s fortune may have finally been laid to rest, but as the dust settles it’s kind of surprising to see a Lake Charles attorney’s name being brought up as part of the case.

Edwin Hunter's name came up in court documents as having been the recipient of legal documents in the long-standing estate case. Yahoo! is reporting that the documents were sent to him as a way of delaying that case. Say what? How did this all happen? Okay, let’s back up here…

How It All Started

You may remember that Anna Nicole Smith married an elderly millionaire, J. Howard Marshall II in the mid-1990s. Then he died and left huge sums of money to Anna Nicole. That ticked off Marshall’s son – E. Pierce Marshall, who obviously lost a large part of what he believed was his inheritance. (Do any of the Marshalls have first names or just initials?)

Dannielynn Birkhead and her father, Larry. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Dannielynn Birkhead and her father, Larry. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
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They went to court and were fighting it out tooth and nail when Pierce died in 2006. Then Anna Nicole herself passed away in 2007, leaving the fortune to her daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, 6.

But just because everyone died didn’t mean the battle was over. The estates kept battling it out until this week when a U.S. District Judge put it all to bed. Long story short, Dannielynn won and gets to keep her mother’s money.

But wait – it’s still not over.

What Do You Mean It's Still Not Over?

Yahoo! reports that E. Pierce Marshall was apparently up to some shady tactics during the case. Among his sins, Pierce was using:

delaying tactics (like shipping crucial legal documents to a lawyer in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to keep them from Smith's legal team) to stall the battle. Describing Pierce's behavior as "too pervasive and too egregious to be ignored," [the judge] made it clear that Pierce's estate has to pay.

--Source:  Yahoo! OMG!

In other words, Pierce was allegedly mailing documents to Edwin Hunter here in Lake Charles to stall the case. So not only did Pierce lose the case to regain his daddy’s money, but now the court is also ordering him to pay Dannielynn for his stalling tactics. The little tyke could get as much as $49 million. Yikes.

[The judge] also ordered Edwin Hunter, the lawyer who represented the Marshall family holding company, to show why he shouldn't pay sanctions as well since he was previously caught in a slew of shady activities to try to benefit his client's interests.

--Source:  Yahoo! OMG!

 

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