Estate of Denial: Billionaire L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt is ready for “nuclear war” with her daughter and has asked her lawyers to revoke a reconciliation deal the two struck last year, according to a French Sunday paper.

Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers had, in one of a series of lawsuits, tried to have her 88-year-old mother declared mentally unfit to manage France’s largest private fortune, but in December the two announced that they had resolved their differences.

However Bettencourt’s laywer, Jean-Rene Farthouat, told France’s Journal du Dimanche that relations have turned hostile again.

“I saw Lilliane Bettencourt on Friday, and she is in favour of nuclear war, but we are waiting a bit before taking action,” Farthouat told the paper and later confirmed the quotes to AFP.

In a Friday letter, the multibillionaire asked her lawyer to “act firmly and without delay against the activities of (her) daughter.”

Estate of Denial:  The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Stern v. Marshall, 131 S. Ct. 2594 (2011), has a narrow holding, but potentially enormous implications for bankruptcy courts and litigation in the federal courts. The authority not just of bankruptcy judges but also of federal magistrate judges is now uncertain.

The case involved a dispute between Anna Nicole Smith and Pierce Marshall over inheritance from the very large estate of J. Howard Marshall. To make a long story short, Smith, the widow of Howard Marshall, filed for bankruptcy in the Central District of California. Pierce Marshall, Howard Marshall’s son, filed a proof of claim, primarily alleging that Smith had defamed him. Smith then filed a counterclaim asserting that Pierce Marshall tortuously interfered with her ability to recover from Howard Marshall’s estate. The bankruptcy court ruled in favor of Smith on her counterclaim and awarded her $425 million, which ultimately was reduced to $88 million.

Subsequent to the bankruptcy court’s decision, the Texas probate court ruled in favor of Pierce Marshall. This question, therefore, was one of preclusion. Did the bankruptcy court have the legal authority to issue a final judgment on the state law counterclaim, in which case there was preclusion of the Texas probate court’s decision?

Estate of Denial: Rarely these days does anything positive come out of Washington D.C., but yesterday yielded a piece of good news.

Estate of Denial® has written many times about the effort to extract assets from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II, an effort started by Anna Nicole Smith in the mid-90s and continuing since then due to her estate’s ongoing legal action.  In June, after the case’s second trip to the Supreme Court, the justices upheld a ruling that gave Smith’s estate no part of the Marshall assets.

Estate of Denial: Katherine Jackson’s former attorneys are continuing their legal battle against her son’s estate and in their latest filing, have asked the court to award them $350,000 for costs and fees they say were run up in the days immediately following Michael’s death in 2009.

In the court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, the fees and costs the firm of Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman are requesting are termed “reasonable under the circumstances,” of Katherine briefly taking control of Michael’s estate, and even include $18,000 incurred in connection with Michael’s funeral!

Estate of Denial:  A federal judge in New York has ruled in favor of comic book publisher Marvel Worldwide in a dispute over who owns the rights to such popular characters as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk.

The heirs of comic book artist Jack Kirby sought to assert their rights to such iconic characters in 2009, shortly after Disney announced it would acquire Marvel for $4 billion. Kirby’s estate filed 45 notices of copyright termination, seeking to take back rights to characters created from 1958 to 1963, which they claimed were Kirby’s creations.

Marvel argued that Kirby’s work constituted “work for hire” — that it was done by a freelance artist, under the direction and control of a company, which therefore retained the rights for such creative works.

The Probate Lawyer Blog:  Civil rights icon Rosa Parks passed away at the age of 92 on October 25, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan. Almost six years later, her legacy is still tied up in a lengthy court battle.  The case features allegations of abuse, cronyism and corruption by the probate judge as well as the two lawyers he appointed to oversee the estate and trust.  

It also involves who will receive all of the considerable civil rights memorabilia owned by Rosa Parks when she was alive, and even the rights to use her name and likeness.

Parks' will and trust left the majority of her assets to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, operated by Rosa Parks' longtime friend, Elaine Steele.  Parks and Steele had formed this Institute.  Steele says she was close to Parks for 45 years and that Parks looked at her as the “daughter she never had.”

Estate of Denial: It’s a Nashville saga worthy of its own country music song.

“Gentleman” Jim Reeves was a velvet-voiced country crooner famous for his tuxedos, his clean-cut good looks and lovelorn lyrics such as: “Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.”

He died in a fiery Brentwood plane crash in 1964 at the age of 39.

Today, the fate of potentially millions of dollars in current and future royalties from his singing career remains in question.

Probate Lawyer Blog:  Ryan O'Neal is at it again.  He and Craig Nevius, a Hollywood producer who used to work closely with Farrah Fawcett, are in the midst of more legal fighting against one another.  

Initially, they both sued, each claiming the other had exploited Fawcett while she was sick from the cancer that claimed her life.  Why?  They both said the other had taken advantage of her to produce a documentary about her life and her sickness.  Those lawsuits ended when Nevius ran out of money for legal fees.

Now, he has no choice but to continue fighting.  Ryan O'Neal — Farrah's ex and father to Farrah's son — has sued Nevius again.  What's at stake this time?  It's all about the art.

Specifically, a certain, famed Andy Warhol painting of Fawcett in O'Neal's possession. O'Neal says Warhol gave it to him years ago.  Not everyone thinks he's being honest though.

The Trust Advisor Blog:  Even though 94-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor is not dead yet, a super-size family dispute has begun. On one side her husband, on the other, heirs from 9 marriages. Each claim an inheritance they were promised from a sea of confusing estate plans experts say went way off course.

It’s just as well that Hollywood legend Zsa Zsa Gabor probably has no idea that her ninth husband and only daughter have started bickering over her estate while she’s still alive.

Estate of Denial: Celebrity heirs fighting over the estate is far from uncommon … the Trial & Heirs Blog never has a shortage of material to cover. But, it is unusual when an ugly court battle starts before the celebrity dies and then only continues to grow more heated as time passes. That certainly has been the case with the Dennis Hopper Estate.

The Easy Rider star filed for divorce from his fifth wife, Victoria Duffy-Hopper, in January, 2010. Victoria is about six years younger than Dennis’ oldest child, daughter Marin Hopper. The two have been feuding for some time now.

Estate of Denial:

1) Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s will bequeathed all his assets to the Communist Workers League.  However as the will remained unwitnessed, all his assets reverted to his estranged father and brother leaving his long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson with nothing.   She is refusing to hand over his final unpublished manuscript, which would be the fourth instalment in the best-selling Millenium saga.