Stern files claim involving Smith estate
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Howard K. Stern, the companion of Anna Nicole Smith and executor of her will, has filed court papers seeking 6 percent of whatever the model’s estate might recover from her late husband’s fortune.
Stern filed his creditor’s claim Oct. 18 in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing a contingent fee agreement on file in bankruptcy court.
Smith, who died in February in Florida, was the widow of Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. She had been fighting Marshall’s family for years over his estimated $500 million fortune.
Smith’s 13-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, stands to inherit any portion of the money that might have gone to her mother.
In the court filing, first reported by the Web site CelebTV.com, Stern specifies that his 6 percent payment “is conditioned upon recovery in the Marshall litigation.”
Stern also filed papers last week seeking to make Dannielynn the sole beneficiary of Smith’s estate, though the child is not mentioned in the will.
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