Smith death leaves legal tangle

With major legal issues undecided, Anna Nicole Smith’s legacy could take years to untangle and could leave her baby daughter with millions of pounds or nothing at all.

Smith’s battle over her late husband J Howard Marshall II’s oil fortune with the family of his son grinds on in Texas.

And there is a pending class action suit seeking unspecified damages against Smith and TrimSpa Inc, alleging the company’s marketing of a weight-loss pill with Smith as spokeswoman was false and misleading.

Meanwhile, two men are contesting the paternity of Smith’s five-month-old daughter Dannielynn, with an emergency hearing in the case planned for today in Los Angeles.

Experts say the custody decision could determine the child’s inheritance.

Attorney Howard K Stern, Smith’s most recent companion, is listed on Dannielynn’s birth certificate as her father.

If it is determined he is the biological father and if he was legally married to Smith – which has yet to be established – Stern, not Dannielynn, would likely inherit Smith’s estate, experts say.

Smith’s former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, says he is the girl’s father.