Ex-Judge Who Wants His Seat Back Faces Suit

The state attorney general’s office Monday authorized Orange County to file a lawsuit against former Orange County Superior Court Judge Mark P. Robinson Sr. to determine whether he has the right to reclaim his seat on the bench.

The lawsuit, which was filed later in the day by the attorney general’s office in Sacramento County Superior Court on behalf of Orange County, was necessary because Robinson’s attempt to return to the court is unprecedented and requires a “judicial determination,” according to Assistant Atty. Gen. N. M. Hill.

The rare action cannot be filed by a governmental body without approval from the attorney general’s office.

Robinson left his Orange County post on May 22, 1984, citing various personal and professional reasons. Barely a month after he left the bench, however, he indicated that he might return for the new term at the start of the year. He met with Gov. George Deukmejian’s aides in an effort to secure an appointment in Los Angeles, but when the governor declined to appoint him either in Los Angeles or Orange County, Robinson tried to get his old Superior Court seat back.

The Robinson case is important statewide, both parties said, because no state court has ruled on whether a judge who resigns in the middle of an unopposed, and therefore automatic, election can assume office when the new six-year term begins.

Happens Every 2 Years

“Every two years, a certain number of judges will be elected automatically because they will be unopposed and their names will not go on the ballot,” said Presiding Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey.

“If any judge were to resign between the election in June and the end of the term (in December), then whether he can return is an open question,” Dickey added.

Robinson has maintained that because he was unopposed, state law deemed him elected to a new term.

“When Robinson resigned as a judge, that had nothing to do with the election process,” his lawyer, John Sobieski of Los Angeles, said. “Once the election process is started, it has to be completed. Our position is that he was reelected.”

The lawsuit includes as defendants three other former judges who resigned after Robinson’s departure, but Dickey said he has “no reason to believe that any of them will seek to return.”

Dickey said the issues are “too important” to involve personalities or to be left to “future chance.”

Besides Dickey and the county court, the plaintiffs include recently appointed Judges John J. Ryan and Donald E. Smallwood.

Ryan was appointed to fill the vacancy created by Judge William Sheffield’s Sept. 25 resignation, and Smallwood was named to fill the seat of Judge J.E.T. Rutter, who retired June 17.

Sheffield, Rutter and Kenneth E. Lae, who went on disability retirement Dec. 12 after fighting acute leukemia for a year, were named as defendants because they are the only other judges who ran without opposition and who subsequently left the bench.

If Robinson’s view of the law were accepted, the suit maintains, Ryan and Smallwood could be ousted anytime before they stand for election in 1986 if the judges they replaced want to return to their seats. There is no indication, however, that either Sheffield, a divinity student, or Rutter wants to return to the bench.

Appointment Expected

Lae’s seat has not yet been filled, but Dickey said he expects the governor to appoint someone soon.

The attorney general’s approval of the suit was expected. In a Sept. 26 opinion, which is not binding on a party or the court, the office decided that the law allows write-in campaigns to be initiated against unopposed judges after the June primary until 59 days before the November election, which was Sept. 11 last year.

Because an unopposed candidate could not be “deemed” elected until Sept. 11, the opinion stated, Robinson’s resignation came before he was elected and ended any right he had to a new term.

Robinson, who was appointed at the end of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s term in 1982, was a successful plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer who acknowledged at the time of his swearing-in that he was not sure how long he would stay on the bench.

He lives in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles and maintains an office there, as well as one in Santa Ana with his son.