Ex-Playboy model wins case in Supreme Court

Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith has won the right to continue her fight for some of her late husband's oil fortune.

She took her case to the Supreme Court and on Monday, it ruled in her favour.

Smith was a 26-year-old topless dancer when she met elderly billionaire J. Howard Marshall in Texas. They were married for 14 months when he died in 1995.

She has been fighting with his family over a share of his estate ever since.

A federal judge awarded her nearly $90 million, but an appeals court said the Federal Court didn't have jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court justices unanimously overturned that ruling.

Some observers were surprised that the top court agreed to hear Smith's appeal and even more so when the legal principle behind it drew the support of President George W. Bush and his administration.

The Supreme Court was asked primarily to decide on a jurisdictional question, involving whether Federal Courts can hear claims that involve probate proceedings, traditionally handled by state courts.

The White House supports the Federal Courts' authority over state courts.

Smith currently works as a spokesperson for a diet-product company. A few years ago, she had her own reality TV series on the E! cable television network The Anna Nicole Show.