Kornberg, who won the 1959 Nobel Prize in medicine for earlier research in DNA replication, was co-author of the report written after nine years of experiments.
"We believe we're on sound ground that the mortgage can be avoided for the benefit of all U.S. Line's creditors," said Alan Kornberg, a lawyer for Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy.
Kornberg said his client has a "psychiatric background." Smith was admitted briefly to Bellevue Hospital in December, after he allegedly tried to commit suicide by taking rat poison, Walsh said.