A federal appeals court declined to rehear the case and reconsider a ruling disinheriting former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith by passing her late husband’s estate to his son. According to the decision of a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, E. Pierce Marshall, son of oilman J. Howard Marshall, was his only heir who was entitled to $88.5 million from the oilman’s assets.

In 1994, 26-year-old Anna, nee Vicki Lynn Hogan, married an 89-year-old billionaire, J. Howard Marshall II, three years after meeting him when she was working as a stripper.

After Marshall’s death in 1995, the battle began between the oilman’s young widow and his son. Though Smith was not mentioned in any of the man’s wills, she claimed that he offered her half of his money and that younger Marshall falsified documents to try to keep her from receiving money from his father's estate.

Last December, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Texas probate court's ruling that awarded $88.5 million to the 1993 Playmate of the Year.

Smith asked the full court to rehear the case but it declined to do so this week.

Marshall's attorney Eric Brunstad told The Associated Press on Thursday: "The basic principle we think is very sound is if you pursue a probate claim in a probate court, that's the only place you should pursue it."

Smith's attorney, Howard K. Stern, disagreed, saying that "the 9th Circuit's ruling is not based on the merits of the case, but instead on what we believe is a misapplication of a jurisdictional exception regarding probate cases".