Appellate Justice Scoville to Retire, Will Manage Controversial Trust

Harmon G. Scoville, presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal’s Santa Ana division, surprised his colleagues and staff by announcing his retirement Wednesday to accept a job as special master of a major and controversial trust in Marin County.

Scoville, 67, urged Gov. George Deukmejian in a retirement letter to appoint his successor as soon as possible because of the appellate court’s heavy workload. He also reiterated a longstanding argument that the Santa Ana appellate division should have seven justices instead of five.

Scoville, appointed presiding justice of the Santa Ana division just two years ago, said that he had not been thinking about retirement any time soon.

But two weeks ago, he said, a longtime friend since his law school days, former Superior Court Judge Homer G. Thompson of Santa Clara County, offered him the special master position of the Buck Trust, which has assets of more than $250 million. Thompson is under appointment by the state Supreme Court to control the trust.

“He told me that several people had applied for the position, but he wanted me to to take it because of my experience in probate and trust law,” Scoville said. “The offer was clear out of the blue, but after meeting with him, I decided, by golly, that I would accept it.”

Scoville’s announcement left his colleagues on the appellate bench surprised but happy for him.

“He’s been great to have here,” Justice Edward J. Wallin said. “He has a tremendous grace and presence that’s really very nice to be around.”

Scoville’s 23-year career as a judge was noted recently by the Orange County Bar Assn., which awarded him the annual Franklin G. West Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor that it bestows on a judge.

Scoville told Deukmejian that his retirement would be effective April 1.

He is the second presiding judge to leave the Santa Ana division, which was set up in January, 1983. Former Presiding Justice John K. Trotter left two years ago to become involved with a statewide arbitration panel.

No one had expected Deukmejian to replace Trotter with any of the other three justices on the panel, because they were all appointments of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. In fact, Deukmejian, as attorney general sitting on the Commission on Judicial Appointments, had voted against all of them at their confirmation hearings. They had all refused to publicly declare their personal views on the death penalty, which he had requested.

Scoville, known statewide as an authority on probate and trust law, was in his second term as presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court when Deukmejian tapped him to replace Trotter. Though capital punishment was not a major issue at Scoville’s confirmation hearing, he volunteered that he supported the death penalty. His selection was unanimous.

Scoville immediately lobbied for a fifth justice on the panel, which the Legislature eventually agreed to. Justice Henry Moore was appointed by Deukmejian to that position last year.

Scoville also set up a settlement program for civil appeals, which is rare for appellate courts. He told Orange County’s lawyers that they could choose any of the five justices to oversee the settlement. If the case could not be settled, Scoville assured them, that justice would not sit on the three-member panel that would then hear oral arguments for a decision.

“We settled more than a hundred cases last year,” Scoville said proudly. “I’m a great believer in settlements whenever possible.”

But Scoville says the next task will be to add two more justices to the Santa Ana appellate bench. The workload ration per justice is already far greater than in most major metropolitan counties in the state, he said.

Scoville is a graduate of UCLA, who went on to law school at Stanford University.

“I had a choice between Stanford and Harvard, but I figured if I was going to practice law in California, I ought to go to a California school,” he recalled.

He began his career with a Los Angeles law firm, then moved to Orange County to practice in 1955. He was appointed to the Municipal Court bench for the Huntington Beach/Seal Beach district by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967. He was elevated to the Superior Court bench two years later.

For many years, Scoville has lectured annually on probate and trust law at the California Center for Judicial Education, an orientation for new judges, at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall.

Throughout the years, he has maintained his friendship with Thompson. When Scoville was recently heading to San Francisco for a temporary assignment with the state Supreme Court, the two made plans to get together for dinner. But Thompson surprised him before then, Scoville said, with the job offer.

The Buck trust was left by the late Beryl Buck for care of the needy and other charities in Marin County. When the San Francisco Foundation which controlled the trust tried to modify the terms to allow distribution of its funds to other counties, Marin County officials challenged it in court.

Thompson presided over the trial in 1986 and ruled that the trust’s funds must remain in Marin County. The Marin Community Foundation took control and Thompson, in charge of the trust after his retirement from the bench, appointed a special master to oversee it for him. The position recently became open.

Scoville said he expects Deukmejian to appoint his replacement within three to six months. In his letter to the governor, Scoville said he would be available to return to the bench for temporary assignments.