Showers on the Paper Work : Courthouse Staff Is Rained Out

Thursday’s rainstorm, though not particularly severe, was a minor disaster for a group of Superior Court judges, court reporters and judicial secretaries who were forced out of their offices by a leaky roof at the County Courthouse in downtown San Diego.

“It’s sad but comical,” Judge William H. Kennedy said. “It’s almost as if someone turned a shower on over my chambers.” The indoor precipitation had court reporters scrambling in search of covers for the expensive equipment they use to produce transcripts. It also forced judges and lawyers to send juries out of the courtroom so they could hold private conferences there instead of in chambers.

Bill Pierce, executive officer of the Superior Court, said the building was being re-roofed when the rains began Wednesday. Water began seeping in and, by Thursday morning, one wing of the building’s fifth floor was unusable.

Pierce said no courtrooms were affected by the leakage, so no trials had to be postponed. But a variety of small inconveniences slowed the pace at which the affected judges were able to dispatch even the most routine business.

“If I want to make a phone call or do some paper work, I have to borrow the one chambers up here that hasn’t been affected,” Kennedy said. “We’re all running in there and standing in line to make phone calls.”

Judge Douglas R. Woodworth said that, although his desk and shelves had been covered by sheets of plastic to protect them from water, he had staked out one dry corner to do his paper work “accompanied by the music of dripping water.”

The biggest problem Woodworth and the other judges faced was not having a place to hold conferences with lawyers.

“I can’t invite anyone in here,” Woodworth said of his chambers, where all available seating was buried under tarpaulins. “The attorneys have had to meet just standing up in the hallway or sitting in the corner of the courtroom, where it’s uncomfortable and there are no surfaces for taking notes.”

Pierce said he did not yet know how much damage had been caused by the leaks, but that some transcripts had been destroyed.

The judges and other courtroom staff members remained philosophical about the inconveniences. One clerk said he was keeping his umbrella handy, in case the ceiling over his desk should begin to drip. But court personnel expressed concern about how long they could continue to work without easy access to files and reference books.

“It would be a major interference with the quality of the work I do if it went on for a longer period; likewise, if it happened every time it rained,” Woodworth said. “It has not shut down the courtroom, but it has shut down some of the essential things I do in chambers.”

Kennedy expressed concern about whether the 25-year-old building was going to survive the downpour.

“We have all these people running around here looking concerned, but they haven’t seemed to accomplish anything,” Kennedy said. “My ceiling’s going to go very soon. I hope they do something before that happens.”