Anna Nicole's Daughter Is No Million-Dollar Baby
By Horace Cooper
April 13, 2007
Page 2 of 3
This was a sensitive issue to the Framers of the Constitution because of failures in the earlier Articles of Confederation to impose legal duties on other states to honor contracts or other legal judgments. The principle is so important that it is explicitly embodied in the full faith and credit clause.
The idea is that our law strikes a balance between competing interests. On one hand, we ensure that we can provide litigants with certainty of finality that prevents a defendant from having to defend the same claim repeatedly. On the other hand, we can also guarantee that a plaintiff will be granted his or her day in court without limits on what claims they're allowed to make. But if this claim has already been dealt with earlier, instead of dismissing the case, the court will apply the findings of the earlier judgment.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that the 9th Circuit's interpretation that the federal courts have no jurisdiction whatsoever over probate matters was overly broad, and the justices have sent the case back to the 9th Circuit on remand. Now the 9th Circuit will focus on the specific arguments of this legal dispute.
This is bad news for Dannielynn and Smith's legal team. The remaining legal issues surrounding this litigation are fairly straightforward and uncomplicated. J. Howard Marshall was legally allowed to direct his bequest to whomever he pleased, and he chose his son Pierce. He never intended to leave any portion of his estate to Smith or her heirs. We know these things because that's what the jury found after a six-month trial in Texas. We also know that, under the doctrine of res judicata, each of these findings must be upheld in any other courts that look at this case.
On The Merits
Now the case has returned to the 9th Circuit. When it originally invoked the "probate exception," the 9th Circuit panel didn't rule on the merits of either the federal bankruptcy court or the federal district court decisions. With the Supreme Court's narrow opinion explaining that none of the Supreme Court's earlier cases endorsed the notion that federal courts couldn't independently weigh in on probate matters, the 9th Circuit now will have to deal with the merits.
In that context, the most compelling question for the 9th Circuit will be a determination of which court -- the federal bankruptcy or district court or the Texas probate court -- issued a final judgment first. Chronologically the Texas probate case started first, but the federal bankruptcy court issued its verdict first. The 9th Circuit panel reviewing the case will have to determine which decision counts as the first "final judgment."
There are two issues here. First, the federal district court vacated the ruling of the bankruptcy court and reviewed the matter de novo. It did so after the Texas probate trial had concluded. If this decision about vacating the bankruptcy ruling is upheld, it would mean that the bankruptcy ruling has no effect for purposes of res judicata -- that is, neither the bankruptcy decision nor the federal district court's ruling were final judgments for this purpose.
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