In a dramatic new twist in the legal showdown over who owns Anna Nicole’s Bahamas house, I’ve just learned that the South Carolina developer Anna Nicole Smith claimed gave, or sold, her the Horizons house today failed to post a $100,000 cash bond to pursue his lawsuit against her estate for the property. A local judge had ordered G. Ben Thompson to put up the cash bond by May 28 to indemnify Anna Nicole’s estate for court costs if he were to pursue the lawsuit and lose, but his lawyers got an extra day for a religious holiday Monday.

However, sources tell me his lawyer, Godfrey Pro Pinder Tuesday kept the court date, and asked the judge to waive the $100,000 cash demand on his client; he refused that request, but did grant an extra week for Thompson to come up with the bond–in cash. He also asked for documentation that lawyer Howard K. Stern is the legally named executor of Anna Nicole’s estate; that’s in the will admitted in the earlier Florida court of Judge Larry Seidlin, which has been filed in Los Angeles as well.

Shelley has been reaching out to try to resolve the dispute with Stern. Sources say he phoned Stern last weekend, but was referred to lawyers handling the Horizons dispute. Shelley, Thompson’s son-in-law and real estate colleague, tells me he aims to preserve his claim to the title by moving forward with the lawsuit–and put up the cash.

“We will put up the money this week,” Shelley told me me in an exclusive phone interview late today. “We’re not mad at Anna, Howard or anyone; we’d like to work this out. But will move forward if we have to.”

With Bahamas courts dark for a religious holiday called “Whit Monday, the South Carolina developer who claims HE still owns the house he sold, or agreed to sell, to the late Anna Nicole Smith, now has until the end of business Tuesday to come up with a $100,000 cash bond to pursue the home he claims is his castle, not Anna Nicole’s.

If he fails to post the bond, a judge could dismiss Thompson’s lawsuit against Smith, and award Horizons to Anna Nicole’s estate as rightful owner. She always maintained it was rightfully hers, and that G. Ben Thompson had offered to give it to her, or, as son in law Ford Shelley told her, let her pay it back when she could.

If Thompson were to post the bond to pursue his Horizons suit, then lose the lawsuit for the house Smith said she bought before she died of an accidental overdose, the bond would go to pay court costs and legal fees of the winning party, Smith’s estate. That may be a gamble he doesn’t want to take, sources close to the case tell me.

Court sources tell me no bond was posted Friday. The judge issued a short, two page order on May 7, demanding Thompson post the cash bond, not uncommon when the plaintiff is a foreigner, with no easily seizable assets, or if the judge has questions about the merits of a claim; the court just wants a guarantee the out-of-towner will pay up if he loses.

So, where does that leave Howard K. Stern, executor of the estate and Anna Nicole’s attorney and companion? For now, he’s home free at Horizons, where an injunction prevents him from being evicted from the home he once shared with the larger-than-life dead celebrity and her daughter, Dannielynn, a child sources close to his family tell me he truly believed he’d fathered based on when he’d been with Smith. Read the rest of this entry »