Ex-Superior Court Judge Philip H. Richards, 92

Philip H. Richards, a retired Los Angeles Superior Court judge who in his lengthy career ruled in favor of the Bunker Hill renovation project and against the county in litigation involving property slippage damage in the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has died.

He was 92 and died Oct. 11 at a Los Angeles hospital.

A native of Riverside County, Richards moved to Los Angeles, graduated from Los Angeles High School and attended Pomona College before receiving his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1917.

After Army service in World War I he entered Stanford Law School, graduating in 1921, and was in private practice until appointed to the Superior Court bench by Gov. Earl Warren in 1947.

He served as presiding judge of the Superior Court from 1953 to 1955, retired in 1964 but for the next 15 years served as a county consultant on the writing of jury instructions.

His decision approving the city’s plan to renovate the Bunker Hill area eventually led to the skyscrapers that now dominate the downtown Los Angeles skyline. In 1961 he ruled that the county’s 1956 street-extension work on Crenshaw Boulevard was to blame for the massive land movement that eventually damaged and destroyed 145 homes in Portuguese Bend.

A past president of the Los Angeles Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the University Club of Los Angeles, Richards is survived by his wife, Ida; a son, Philip; a daughter, Margaret Bowers, and three grandchildren. There will be no services and contributions in his name are being asked for the Los Angeles Boy Scouts Council.