Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas Has Surgery

Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas underwent “successful abdominal surgery” Wednesday and will remain in a hospital briefly, the state Supreme Court announced.

A one-paragraph statement issued just before the court closed for the day said the 60-year-old Lucas will recuperate at his home in Los Alamitos and work on court business upon release from an undisclosed hospital.

The statement indicated that the chief justice will resume his regular duties at the court here in late August, after taking a planned vacation with his wife, Joan.

Although no details of the nature or seriousness of the chief justice’s condition were divulged, other court members said Wednesday night that they had been told that the ailment was “not life-threatening.”

Justice Edward A. Panelli, named acting chief justice in Lucas’ absence, said he had been told that Lucas’ surgery “went well and there were no problems” and that he expects to be released from the hospital in three or four days.

Several court officials indicated that the absence of an explanation for the surgery stems from a desire for family privacy.

“He’s a close-to-the-vest kind of person,” one official said.

The disclosure of the surgery was a surprise to many court officials. It was learned in mid-afternoon that Lucas had not participated in the court’s weekly closed conference, but there was no indication until later that the absence was because of surgery.

Panelli said Lucas had told him no details of the operation but had told him to go on a previously planned weekend trip out of the state.

Justice Stanley Mosk, who returned from a trip Tuesday, said he had received no prior word of the operation but had been informed, as were others, that the chief justice’s condition was “not life-threatening.”

The announcement was distributed shortly before 5 p.m. by Burton W. Oliver, deputy director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Oliver indicated that the court had planned to make the announcement today but had decided to release the information out of concern that word might be disclosed prematurely from other sources. He said he expects more information to be made available today.

Although Lucas missed the justices’ weekly conference Wednesday, it was understood that he arranged to have his position presented on several cases.

Lucas has served as court leader since Feb. 6, when he was sworn into office by Gov. George Deukmejian to succeed former Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

A longtime federal judge and former law partner of the governor, Lucas was appointed to the court by Deukmejian in 1984. After the defeat of Bird and two other justices in the Nov. 4 election, the governor elevated Lucas to head the court and the state’s judicial system.