March 20, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): The former stripper Anna Nicole Smith had married the Texas billionaire in the last year of his life but inherited none of his vast oil riches. The billionaire, in his will left nearly all of his $1.6 billion estate to his son E. Pierce Marshall. The two had met in a Houston strip club and married in 1994, when he was 89 and she was 26. He died the following year.

The Houston jury won the favors of the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday and stated that J. Howard Marshall was mentally fit and under no undue pressure when he charted his will. His vast fortunes have no concession for Smith who was left without a penny after her husband’s death.

The fifteen year long legal battle outlasted the two combatants as E. Pierce Marshall departed in 2006, followed by Smith in 2007. Marshall had promised her $300 million, although there was no written documentation for the same. The fight started in a Houston probate Court and went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It may not be the end of this scuffle as Kent Richland, Smith’s lawyer vowed to take the battle further and appeal against the latest ruling, probably on different issues than present earlier. He said, “We will have to take it further.”

Pierce Marshall is survived by his widow and two sons who were happy with the verdict and wished that Pierce was still around to witness vindication.

If the Supreme Court’s decision is held final and binding, it spells bad news for Smith’s ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead and their three year old daughter Dannielynn. Daniellynn was named heir to Anna Nicole Smith’s estate after her untimely death in 2007. Attorney Howard K. Stern was named executor of Smiths’s will, under which she left $10,000 and property worth $1.8 million, with mortgage of $1.1 million at the time of her death.