High Court to Reopen for Business in April

The California Supreme Court announced Friday that it will resume hearing cases in April and will hold rearguments on several important issues--ranging from the validity of the state’s death penalty procedures to the legality of the new uninsured motorist’s law.

It is anticipated that by that time three new appointees to be named by Gov. George Deukmejian will be seated on what is expected to be a much more conservative court than the one under former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

The court had canceled its schedule of oral arguments shortly after the Nov. 4 election after the defeat of Bird and Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph R. Grodin.

35 Decisions Reached

The court then concentrated on deciding as many cases as possible before the Jan. 5 departure of the three justices. In two months, it was able to issue 35 decisions but left up to 60 other cases facing reargument before the new court. Those cases could have been decided without reargument only if the four remaining members of the court were unanimous. Scores of other cases the court had agreed to hear await argument for the first time.

The new court calendar, to be heard April 6 to 10 in the justices’ Los Angeles courtroom, includes an unusually large docket of 29 cases. Nineteen of them are cases that had been argued before but not decided by the old court--including 10 involving the death penalty.

Among the issues to be reargued are:

- Whether a jury, in order to impose a death sentence, must find that the defendant intended to kill his victim. The court’s ruling could affect up to 75 pending capital cases, state prosecutors say.

- The validity of a state law requiring motorists to carry liability insurance or face loss of their driver’s licenses. Enforcement of the law has been suspended pending the court’s decision on its validity.

- In what circumstances can police detain minors they believe are absent from school without good reason.

- Whether an employee who was dismissed can sue his employer for violating an unwritten but implied promise to fire only for “good cause.” The outcome is widely awaited as a test of the longstanding doctrine allowing employers to dismiss workers “at will.”

- Whether a man whose female live-in partner was killed in an auto crash can sue the driver of the other car for the loss of the woman’s love and support.

In addition, the court also scheduled argument for the first time in cases testing whether police can establish random roadblocks to apprehend drunk drivers and whether the state is complying with a milestone 1976 decision requiring elimination of substantial disparities in spending by local school districts.

Cases Reviewed

Since Jan. 5, the four jurists remaining on the seven-member court--Justices Stanley Mosk, Allen E. Broussard, Malcolm M. Lucas and Edward A. Panelli--have been reviewing scores of cases to determine which should be scheduled for formal hearings. State appellate court justices have been called in to serve temporarily when the regular justices are unable to agree and thus cannot provide the required four votes for action.

Broussard has served as acting chief justice, pending a Feb. 5 confirmation hearing for Lucas, who is the governor’s nominee to succeed Bird.

Deukmejian has announced a list of six potential nominees to the three vacant positions that is now under non-binding review by a commission of the State Bar.

When the Bar’s evaluations are completed, the governor will select his three nominees and send their names to the state Judicial Appointments Commission for confirmation hearings. It is anticipated that this process will be completed at least by late March.