$975M Check Not Enough to End Divorce Fight

First Sue Ann Arnall seemed to reject a check for $974,790,317.77 from ex-husband Harold Hamm, because she said she was due more in her divorce settlement from the oil magnate. Then she cashed the check, and the world wondered whether that meant the epic divorce battle was finally over. The answer: no. Yesterday, Arnall said that though she had accepted the check—the entire remaining balance Hamm owed her, according to an Oklahoma court's November decision—she won't drop her appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Reuters reports. She says, Tulsa World adds, that she only deposited the check because she otherwise might not have had access to funds from the estate during her possibly years-long appeal.

"I will not dismiss my appeal and do not feel that my right to appeal should be denied because I have accepted, in the interim, a small portion of the estate that we built over more than two decades. ... Accepting the payment of less than 10% of our estate does not negate the principles at stake," she said in a statement. She also denied ever "rejecting" the check, saying that she simply did not deposit it immediately. Legal experts have said she may have made her appeal more difficult by accepting the check, and Hamm has asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to dismiss Arnall's appeal due to her acceptance of it, Bloomberg reports. (More Harold Hamm stories.)