Florida's “Weepy Wacko” judge reached the right result, but for the wrong reasons, in deciding the fate of Anna Nicole Smith's bodily remains, an appeals court has ruled.

Broward County Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin last week concluded a bizarre trial by authorizing the court-appointed advocate for Smith's infant daughter to take possession of the remains. The former Playmate's estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, filed an emergency petition, claiming Seidlin “departed from the essential requirements of the law.”

Ruling a few hours after hearing oral arguments, the Florida 4th District Court of Appeal said Seidlin had erred in applying two statutes to the case that govern how funeral homes dispose of bodies. “We find that neither section 497.005(37), nor section 406.50, control the outcome of this case,” the unsigned opinion said.

But the court still affirmed Seidlin's order on common-law grounds and so moved Smith a major step closer to being buried beside her son Daniel in the Bahamas.

“The 'tipsy coachman' doctrine allows an appellate court to affirm a trial court that 'reaches the right result, but for the wrong reasons' so long as 'there is any basis which would support the judgment in the record,'” the 4th District noted.

Seidlin did discuss the common law in his decision, saying it entitled Smith's daughter Dannielynn, as next of kin, to determine where she should be buried and citing the recent 4th District precedent of Cohen v. Guardianship of Cohen, 896 So.2d 950 (2005).

But the judge also relied on the two mortuary statutes to decide that Dannielynn came before her grandmother in the body disposal pecking order. According to the appeals court, that was improper because those laws were intended merely to guide funeral home operators.

Under Cohen, “clear and convincing” evidence of Smith's intent is dispositive, the 4th District said, and

Herein, the trial court found that “Anna Nicole Smith’s last ascertainable wish with respect to the disposition of her remains was that she be buried in the Bahamas next to her son Daniel Wayne Smith.” This finding is not essentially disputed.

Smith is scheduled to be buried March 2. As for Seidlin, maybe he will now be known as a “tipsy coachman” rather than a “Weepy Wacko.”

By Matthew Heller
2/28/07