Chief Justice Lucas Has an Operation

Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas underwent successful abdominal surgery and will remain hospitalized for a brief period, a spokesman for the state Supreme Court said Wednesday.

In a terse one-paragraph announcement released just before the court closed for the day, it was disclosed that the 60-year-old Lucas will recuperate at home after his release from the hospital and will continue to work on court business.

The announcement noted that there was no oral argument calendar scheduled before the justices in August and that the chief justice and his wife, Joan, will leave on a previously planned vacation in the middle of next month.

Lucas will return to the court’s chambers in San Francisco in late August, it said. In his absence, Justice Edward A. Panelli will serve as acting chief justice.

The disclosure came as a surprise to many court officials. It was learned late in the day that Lucas had not participated in the court’s weekly closed conference, but there was no initial indication that the absence was the result of his health.

The court spokesman, Burton W. Oliver, deputy director of the administrative office of the courts, said he could not provide the name of the hospital where the surgery was performed Wednesday morning nor the identities of attending physicians. He said that further information will be made available today.

The spokesman refused to discuss the reason for the surgery or the condition of the chief justice. But, referring to the announcement, Oliver noted that the “fact that it refers to a ‘brief hospital stay’ suggests . . . that this is not an emergency situation.”

Lucas, a one-time federal judge and former law partner of Gov. George Deukmejian, was appointed a Supreme Court associate justice by the governor in 1984. After the defeat of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two other justices in last fall’s election, the governor elevated Lucas to head the court and the state’s judicial system.

A questionnaire completed by Lucas before his 1984 appointment stated his health as “excellent” and said he had “no health restrictions affecting the performance of my judicial duties or any other activities.”