Bill Asks for 2 More Justices to Ease Burden of Santa Ana Caseload

Responding to a state appellate court justice’s plea, Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Huntington Beach) introduced a bill Monday that would add two more justices to the Santa Ana division of the state Court of Appeal to help with an increasing caseload.

The bill, which also would add appropriate staffing for the new justices, comes barely a month after Presiding Justice John K. Trotter Jr. released a report showing that the division’s caseload required two more judges.

The prospect of more judges means that the Orange County Historical Commission could be squeezed out of the old Orange County Courthouse, which is being renovated to house both the appellate court and the commission by early 1987.

State and county facilities planners are close to signing a 20-year lease for the appellate court to occupy the courthouse, court and county sources said.

Meanwhile, developers who failed last spring to get the U.S. District Court to put its Orange County branch into the nearby Masonic Temple made an 11th hour bid to woo the state appellate justices away from the old county courthouse.

But to do that, developers James Meehan and Dick Chiang and their architectural consultant, Raymond Girvigian of South Pasadena, would have to seek a change in a state law that requires that the division sit in the old courthouse.

“We have negotiations under way now to lease the old courthouse,” said Burton Oliver, deputy director of the state Judicial Council. “If they (the developers) are going to present anything, which they haven’t, they’re a little late.”

Meehan and Chiang could not be reached for comment. Girvigian, who also is the historical architectural consultant for the old courthouse renovation, declined comment.

Frizzelle said his bill is a response to Trotter’s Jan. 10 report, which showed the division with a backlog of 709 cases at the start of the year.

The report said the division expects 650 to 700 new cases this year. With the four justices likely producing 500 written opinions, more than the state average of 105 cases per justice, about 200 more cases will be added to the backlog by the end of the year, the report stated.

Unlike any other division’s caseload in the state, 70% of the Santa Ana court’s work involves civil cases “which tend to be more complex and difficult than their criminal counterparts,” Trotter said. No other division has more civil appeals than criminal appeals.

“To stay even, let alone catch up, the division needs two more justices,” Frizzelle said.

He said the bill is a response to Trotter’s report, which the justice had sent to all county legislators last month. While Trotter acknowledged that the bill might fail this year, he said the Legislature eventually must bow to the need to create two more positions within “four or five years.”

If two new justices are added, the appellate court would require most of the space on the second floor of the old courthouse, where the Historical Commission plans to house its museum and offices.

Commission members have long opposed sharing the building with the appellate court because they feared they would be pushed out and left with only wall displays and occasional use of the historical courtroom.

“If they add more justices, I would assume it will increase the space they (the justices) would want and we barely have what we need now,” said commission Chairwoman Jane Gerber.

In spite of the law requiring the appellate court to occupy the 85-year-old courthouse, Masonic Temple developers Meehan and Chiang and architect Girvigian approached the appellate court justices last spring.

Trotter said he and another justice toured the building in June at the urging of an aide to county Supervisor Roger Stanton, who favors using the old courthouse for Superior Court courtrooms and leaving the commission on the second floor.

Trotter said he went as a courtesy to Stanton.

“I explained that we didn’t have the power to approve or disapprove anything,” Trotter said. “I told them they would have to go to the (state) Administrative Office of the Courts if they wanted to change anything.”

He said the justices would go wherever state law mandated them to go. He said he did not hear from the developers again until December when hastily drawn up plans were sent to the court, then quickly withdrawn.

In mid-January, Meehan and Girvigian brought new plans to Trotter, who decribed them as “more than adequate” and “beautiful, but not realistic” because the obviously higher costs of renovation would not likely be borne by taxpayers.

The Santa Ana division, which began operations in January, 1983, is one of three divisions in the 4th Court of Appeal District, covering Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial and Inyo counties.

Unlike the divisions in San Diego and San Bernardino, the Santa Ana division has four justices. The others have six justices each.

The Santa Ana division was created after more than a decade of fruitless lobbying when Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove) offered the old courthouse as a site--with the approval of the Board of Supervisors--to minimize the cost of a new branch court.

Once the hub of legal and political life in Orange County, the granite-and-sandstone building remained vacant because it did not meet earthquake safety codes and supervisors were unwilling to spend an estimated $2 million to $5 million to renovate it.

Board members voted in 1981 to deed the building to the state as part of the appellate branch compromise but learned that ownership already had been transferred to the Civic Center Redevelopment Authority.

In 1982, Robinson won passage of a second bill mandating the old courthouse as the court seat.