Bid to Disqualify Judge in Anaheim Stadium Suit Fails

A Los Angeles judge ruled against a motion to disqualify Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Domenichini from a lawsuit filed by the California Angels in a dispute over who controls the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, according to court records released Wednesday.

In the non-jury trial involving the City of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Rams, Rams’ attorneys sought to disqualify the judge because of actions involving a former clerk in his courtroom.

The clerk, Marshall F. Norris, was running for the office of county clerk and had solicited the endorsement of a party in the suit, Angels owner and former singing cowboy Gene Autry. Although all parties had approved the endorsement, attorneys for the city and the Rams questioned whether an invitation to a campaign fund-raiser with a picture of Norris and Autry would taint the trial, and therefore the judge’s impartiality. Norris, who lost the election Tuesday, has been reassigned from Domenichini’s courtroom.

Clerk Acted on His Own

In his ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John L. Cole wrote: “Nothing reflects on Judge Domenichini’s impartiality and he engaged in no political activity. The clerk obviously acted on his own private initiative for his own purposes and on his own time in preparing the ill-conceived invitation.”

Angels’ representatives promptly issued a release, saying that they will seek to recover their legal costs from the disqualification attempt.

“Judge Cole’s ruling confirms what we’ve been saying all along: that the entire proceeding instituted by (Anaheim Stadium Associates) was frivolous, without merit and designed to delay the ultimate resolution of the case,” Angels Vice President Michael Schreter said in the release.

Trial to Resume

The trial, which began in December pitting the two biggest tenants of Anaheim Stadium against each other, is scheduled to resume June 16. The Angels’ parent company, Golden West Baseball Co., filed suit on Aug. 8, 1983, against the City of Anaheim and Anaheim Stadium Associates, a partnership between a development company and the heirs of the late Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom. The Angels are seeking to prevent high-rise office complexes and garages from being built on 81 acres of the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, promised to the Rams for development as part of the package which brought the football team to Orange County in 1978.