Court Appointment in Mental-Health Suit Ruled an Error

A Superior Court judge erred when he appointed a retired jurist to consider the complex constitutional and procedural issues involved in a lawsuit challenging the county’s cuts in mental health services, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.

Judge Robert E. May improperly appointed retired Justice Robert O. Staniforth to help out with the lawsuit because only questions of fact can legally be delegated to a court-appointed referee, the 4th District Court of Appeal decided.

“Here the questions being referred . . . are questions of law, not fact, and may not be assigned to a referee without the consent of the parties,” Justice Howard Wiener wrote in an order also signed by Justices Richard Huffman and William Todd.

Last month, May turned over hundreds of pages of documents filed in the case to Staniforth. May said his court calendar did not allow him time to thoroughly review the material, and he asked Staniforth to recommend how he should rule.

The county appealed May’s order, which would have required paying Staniforth $250 an hour. As Deputy County Counsel Paul Bruce put it, “The county is funding the courts to settle disputes and objects to having to pay more” for outside help.

Bruce could not be reached for comment. But attorneys for the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, which filed the suit on behalf of four mental health patients affected by the cuts, had supported May’s action and expressed disappointment at Wednesday’s ruling.