A FLORIDA appeals court today rejected a bid by Anna Nicole Smith's mother to claim her daughter's body, clearing the way for the former Playboy model to be buried in the Bahamas. The Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach turned down Virgie Arthur's request to overturn a lower court ruling that gave custody of Smith's body to a court-appointed guardian for her five-month-old daughter. The guardian is arranging a funeral in the Bahamas, tentatively arranged for Saturday, while Ms Arthur wanted to bury her daughter in Texas. Smith, widow of an oil tycoon and fixture of the US tabloid media, died in a Florida casino hotel on February 8 at the age of 39. Her decomposing body remains at a medical examiner's office in Dania Beach, Florida. Earlier, another Florida judge rejected a bid by Smith's former boyfriend to have a Florida court decide the paternity fight over Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn.
Larry Birkhead says he is the baby's father, despite Smith's long-time companion, Howard K Stern, being named on the birth certificate. Broward County Judge Lawrence Korda rejected jurisdiction and tossed the case back to California, where Birkhead first filed a paternity action. "They have jurisdiction for a number of reasons, apparently the act of conception being what the petition requires in terms of jurisdiction for California," Judge Korda said. He did grant Birkhead the right to get a DNA sample from Smith.
Smith's estate could ultimately be worth millions if it wins a legal battle over the estate of her late husband, billionaire oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.