History Makes a Case for State Court of Appeal

It’s been quite a century for California’s Court of Appeal.

On April 10, 1905, Gov. George Pardee appointed nine justices to help reduce the backlog at the state Supreme Court. They served in three appellate districts: San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Today, the Court of Appeal has 105 justices and three more districts -- Fresno, San Jose and San Diego -- plus divisions in Ventura, Riverside and Santa Ana.

The justices’ names may not be familiar but they hold California’s second-most-powerful judicial posts, handling everything but misdemeanors and death penalties. Fewer than 10% of their cases continue to the state Supreme Court (which gets death-penalty appeals directly from trial courts).

On Monday, more than 160 sitting and retired California appellate justices, and about a dozen from the state Supreme Court, are to appear at a special centennial session at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse -- their first gathering as one court.

It’s a long way from the original nine justices, who had to run for reelection in 1906 with partisan opponents. Five of the nine decided not to run or were defeated. Winners drew straws to see who would run in staggered elections every four, eight and 12 years. Norton Parker Chipman drew the longest straw and a 12-year term, according to a research attorney with the 3rd District in Sacramento who goes by just one name, Levin.

Chipman had served as a nonvoting delegate in Congress for two terms, as a general in the Union Army and as President Lincoln’s personal emissary to commanding officers in the field.

As a judge advocate after the Civil War, he prosecuted Capt. Henry Wirz, commander of the infamous Andersonville Prison, which housed 50,000 Union prisoners in 1864-65. More than 14,000 died, mostly of disease, malnutrition and exposure. Wirz was convicted of war crimes and hanged. Chipman described the trial in his 1911 book, “Tragedy at Andersonville.”

Elected to Congress in 1871 from the District of Columbia, Chipman championed a new holiday called Decoration Day -- which we now know as Memorial Day. He also urged completion of the 555-foot-tall Washington Monument, which had sat unfinished for nearly 25 years at a mere 150 feet. Construction resumed in 1876. Finally completed, it was dedicated in 1884.

“He was still a member of Congress when he came to California in 1875 for his health and [a] warmer climate,” said history buff Jeff Hogge, who is writing a biography of Chipman. Hogge is senior clerk for Justice George Nicholson of Sacramento.

Chipman claimed thousands of acres of Northern California forest, opening a lumber company and shipping timber to Southern California and around the world.

“But he lost his shirt in the late 1870s depression,” Hogge said, “and then went into private practice before he became a state Supreme Court commissioner” -- forerunner of the Court of Appeal.

Chipman stayed on the bench until his retirement in 1921.

Judicial elections could be controversial, and defeats weren’t unusual. One luckless justice was brought down by his name alone.

“In 1932, Justice Hugh Preston in Sacramento, whose brother, John, was on the state Supreme Court, was defeated by an opponent whose slogan was, ‘One Preston Is Enough,’ ” Levin said.

Two years later, voters approved Proposition 3, which made judicial elections nonpartisan. Intended to improve judicial independence, the measure mandated only yes or no votes, not contested races. That system remains in effect.

Partisanship figured in a judicial scandal that came to light in 1934. Justice Gavin W. Craig of Los Angeles, who had served as a campaign fundraiser for a politically powerful senator, lost his judgeship the same way he got it: by continuing to serve as a fundraiser for the senator (who lost the ’32 election).

Craig “just didn’t know when to quit,” Santa Clara University professor Gerald Uelman wrote in a 1981 edition of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine.

In December 1934, Craig was accused of accepting a $60,000 bribe and was tried on federal charges of conspiring to obstruct justice. Although convicted, he refused to leave the bench. Even after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction, he refused to yield. Finally, the state attorney general brought a special quo warranto proceeding, a method of settling disputes over the rights and procedures of a public office.

Craig was booted off the court and prohibited from practicing law.

“Against his contention that the state bar had no power over misdeeds committed by a sitting judge, the California Supreme Court held that a judge is still a lawyer, even though he can’t practice,” Uelman wrote.

Another notable justice was John Aiso of Los Angeles. In 1968, he became the first nisei -- second-generation Japanese American -- appointed to the appellate court. He had been the highest-ranking nisei to serve in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Aiso died in 1988, at 78, from injuries suffered in a robbery attempt against him. A short street in Little Tokyo is named for him.

In 1942, Annette Abbott Adams became the first woman on the Court of Appeal -- and the presiding justice of the 3rd District in Sacramento. She had been the first woman to serve as a U.S. attorney (in 1918) and the first woman assistant U.S. attorney general (in 1920). She did it by playing down her femininity.

“In order to succeed as a lawyer in those days, she adopted mannish characteristics,” Levin said. “She intentionally lowered her voice and dressed in a masculine manner, although she never wore pants -- at least not on the bench.”

Today, women fill 27.6% of the seats on the Court of Appeal.

Another noted woman was Pauline Davis Hanson, appointed in 1980. She retired seven years later, shortly before her death.

“In her waning days, from her condo window, she could see if the light was on in my office,” said James Ardaiz, who replaced her as administrative presiding justice of the 5th District in Fresno. “When my phone rang late at night, I knew it was Pauline” telling him to go home.

“She was a real lady, an extremely warm and unassuming person. When I moved into her office, I opened the desk drawer ... and found a pen emblazoned around the middle with women wearing full bathing suits. When I picked it up, the suits fell down.

“I thought this was someone’s idea of a joke, about as politically incorrect as you could get.

“Then she called and asked how I liked my office, then how I liked my desk.

“ ‘Bill [her husband] gave me that pen when I became a judge,’ she told me.

“I’ve kept that pen all these years, and I don’t want anyone stealing it,” Ardaiz said. “It will be passed on to a worthy successor.”

Another 1980s-era justice, Richard W. Abbe of Ventura, became known for his integrity, fairness, sense of humor and vanity license plate, DISSENT, touting his willingness to disagree with colleagues.

“His wit was like a fine wine -- dry, with a subtle flavor,” Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert said when Abbe died in 2000. “He loathed hypocrisy and cant and brought distinction to the Court of Appeal.”

Appellate opinions weren’t always rendered with civility. In 1979, Levin said, “Justice Robert S. Thompson called a dissenting justice a schmuck, in People vs. Arno.” The case had to do with the improper search of a pornography distributor.

Some people wonder why the federal appellate courts are known as the Court of Appeals, while California’s is the Court of Appeal. There is no real answer, but Ardaiz ventured a joke.

“All things considered,” he said, “my guess would be that we couldn’t afford as many letters in our title as the federal court.”