$88.5M Award to Anna Nicole Smith Reversed <br />Thursday, December 30, 2004<br /> <br />LOS ANGELES A federal appeals court Thursday threw out a judge's ruling that awarded $88.5 million to former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith (search) from the estate of her late husband, an oil tycoon who died at age 90 just over a year after they wed. <br /><br />The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (search) ruled that a Texas probate court's decision that the oilman's son was his sole heir should stand. The appeals court said the federal judge in California who ruled in Smith's favor in 2002 should never have even heard the case.
