Smith baby paternity dispute to continue

The lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend said Tuesday that despite no court decision on paternity of the late model's infant, his client's custody challenge appeared to be progressing well.

DNA test results concerning the paternity of Smith's infant, Dannielynn, were not released during a closed-door session in the Bahamian Supreme Court and the judge scheduled another hearing for next week, attorneys Emerick Knowles and Damian Gomez told reporters outside court.

But Knowles, a lawyer for former Smith boyfriend Larry Birkhead, said things went well for his client.

"Everything happened in his favor," Knowles said.

Birkhead, a California photographer, claims to be the father of the infant and is seeking custody from Howard K. Stern, Smith's lawyer-turned-partner who is listed on the birth certificate as the girl's father. The child's DNA was tested on March 21 but the results have not been revealed.

Neither Birkhead nor Stern attended Tuesday's court hearing.

The attorneys, bound by Bahamian legal rules that prohibit discussion of a closed session, declined to comment on specifics of the case.

Before the session, Gomez, a lawyer for Stern, said the partner feels he has a strong case.

"He remains stoically confident that he will prevail," Gomez said. "That is as far as we can go right now."

No one involved would discuss the next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, or when the judge might disclose the DNA results.

"I know you want to know and I want to tell everybody," Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, said outside court. "But I can't. I can't talk about it."

Smith, who gave birth to Dannielynn in September in the Bahamas, died Feb. 8 in Florida.

The baby, whose full name is Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, could inherit millions from the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II. Smith had been fighting the Texas oil tycoon's family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995.