Top Appeal Court Post for Kremer

Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Kremer was nominated Tuesday by Gov. George Deukmejian to become presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Kremer, a Democrat, was appointed by Deukmejian to his present post on the San Diego bench in 1983, and previously had served with the state attorney general’s office for 20 years.

The appointment to the state appellate court must be confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, and Kremer said Tuesday he would remain on the Superior Court bench until the higher court appointment is reviewed and approved, probably in August.

Kremer, 47, is a resident of Del Mar and a native of Washington state. He moved to California in the l950s to attend Stanford University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1960 and juris doctor degree three years later.

After law school, Kremer was hired as a deputy state attorney general. He advanced to the second-ranking post in the department, chief assistant attorney general, which he held for approximately a year before he was appointed to the San Diego Superior Court.

Kremer said he was “delighted and surprised” by the Court of Appeal nomination. Past governors varied in their appointment practices, sometimes selecting newcomers as presiding justices and in other instances elevating a sitting justice to take the administrative helm of the court, then naming the newcomer as an associate justice.

Kremer’s present salary of $72,000 would increase to more than $83,000 when he steps up to the appellate court post.

He will succeed Presiding Justice Gerald Brown, who retired this month at the mandatory retirement age of 70. Brown had served on the appellate court for 22 years, 20 of them as presiding justice.