The man who spent more than a decade battling former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith over his father's oil fortune has died unexpectedly.

E Pierce Marshall, 67, died of an "extremely aggressive infection", family spokesman David Margulies wrote in a statement, the Houston Chronicle reported today.

Marshall's death comes before his long-running battle with Smith reached a conclusion.

The fight went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which last month sided with the ex-stripper, saying the matter was not the exclusive jurisdiction of a Texas court that