Justice Kaus to Retire Oct. 16
State Supreme Court Justice Otto M. Kaus, a moderate who has written key decisions on medical malpractice and death penalty law, will retire Oct. 16, the court announced today.
No reason was given for the retirement, but Kaus has said his seriously ill wife has been pressuring him to step down.
Kaus, now 65, had spent 19 years on the Superior and appeals courts in Los Angeles when Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. named him to the Supreme Court in June, 1981. He won voter approval in a retention election in 1982.
His retirement will enable Gov. George Deukmejian to make his second appointment to the seven-member court.
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