A dispute has broken out over a mansion here where controversial American celebrity Anna Nicole Smith last lived before she died last Thursday.

Less than four hours after Smith was pronounced dead at Florida Memorial Hospital, Godfrey "Pro" Pinder, attorney for her former lover, G Ben Thompson, declared that with the death of the former Playboy playmate died her claim to the much debated Horizons House on the Eastern Road.

"With her death dies the case," Pinder told The Guardian. "The House belongs to G. Ben Thompson. He was only allowing her to stay there because she was a friend and she just had a baby, and you don't throw a lady out.

"Anna Nicole Smith of late thought she was given the house as a gift because they were intimate, but you cannot give land or house unless it was written. She was upset that the man was not giving her the house as a gift because she was intimate with him."

Speaking on behalf of his client, Pinder said Thompson, an American developer, was very saddened by Smith’s death and that he was also sorry that her life had to end "however it ended".

However, Smith's attorney, Wayne Munroe, said Saturday that her death does not signal the end of her legal matters. He said Smith had bought the mansion last July for US$900,000.

The dispute will land in court as Smith had filed a lawsuit in the Bahamas before her death asking the country's Supreme Court to recognize her purchase.

Smith, who was discovered dead at her hotel room in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, gave birth to her daughter Dannielynn on September 7, last year. Three days later, her 20-year-old son Daniel Smith, died while visiting her in hospital in the Bahamas. A private medical examiner concluded he died from a lethal combination of methadone and antidepressants.