Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith put in an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court today to observe arguments in her fight to acquire the estate of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

The justices are hearing an appeal from Smith in a legal battle with her stepson, E. Pierce Marshall. Smith had been awarded $474 million after her husband's death. The amount was reduced to $88 million by a federal judge and then thrown out by an appeals court.

A throng of photographers greeted Smith as she arrived at the Supreme Court building. She didn't speak to reporters as she entered the building in Washington. Generally, clients don't attend Supreme Court proceedings when lawyers argue the cases.

Smith, who was 26 when she married the 89-year-old Howard Marshall in 1994, says Pierce Marshall destroyed some documents and altered others to ensure she didn't receive the half-billion dollar trust her husband had set up for her before his 1995 death.

The issue before the Supreme Court is a technical one involving the intersection of federal bankruptcy law and the traditional state control over probate proceedings. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal bankruptcy judge lacked jurisdiction to consider Smith's claim that Pierce Marshall illegally interfered with the trust.

Smith is litigating the case under her real name, Vickie Lynn Marshall. A ruling by the Supreme Court is due by July.

The case is Marshall v. Marshall, 04-1544.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 28, 2006 10:55 EST