Anna Nicole Smith's daughter may inherit $49m

Anna Nicole Smith's 6-year-old daughter, Dannielynn, could amass a multi-million dollar fortune in sanctions from the estate of E. Pierce Marshall - son of the actress' former husband J. Howard Marshall.

Years ago, the Supreme Court had ordered that Smith's estate was not entitled to J. Howard's fortune, however, a federal judge ruled this week that the former Playboy Playmate's daughter could win almost 49 million dollars, the New York Post reported.

According to Forbes, US District Judge David O. Carter has ordered Marshall's estate to pay sanctions over "massive discovery abuse" in E. Pierce's legal battle against Smith.

The decision was made by the judge based on the allegations that Marshall's estate attorneys used delaying tactics such as shipping crucial legal documents to a lawyer in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to try and keep them away from Smith's lawyers.

The legal battle has been going for more than 10 years with Smith's estate attempting to recover hundreds of millions of dollars from the huge estate of her husband - estimated to be between 500 million to 1 billion dollars.

J. Howard expired in 1995, at the age of 90, but made no mention of Smith in his will.