Countywide : David Sills to Head 4th Court of Appeal

Superior Court Judge David G. Sills, a former mayor of Irvine, was appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian on Tuesday to the prestigious post of presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana.

Sills’ appointment to the state appellate court is subject to confirmation by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. No date has been set yet for that hearing. If confirmed, Sills would replace Harmon G. Scoville, who retired from the presiding justice’s position April 1.

“It’s a great choice,” said Orange County Superior Court Judge Donald E. Smallwood. “He has a marvelous ability to motivate people and get the best from those around him. He’s a hard worker with a good mind and a great sense of humor.”

Sills, 52, was tapped to take the helm of Division 3 of the 4th District Court of Appeal, which reviews the civil and criminal decisions of Orange County Superior Court. Division 3 is the busiest appellate court panel in the state, generating about 1,000 decisions each year.

Other divisions of the 4th District sit in San Diego and San Bernardino.

Sills, an Irvine resident who has been on the Superior Court for five years, said he was “very excited” by the appointment and looked forward to the challenge. State appellate justices serve 12-year terms.

Thomas F. Crosby Jr., an associate justice on the 4th District Court of Appeal, said he and his three fellow justices welcomed the appointment. Crosby said he and his colleagues were impressed with Sills when he filled in as an appeals justice for a few months in late 1988 and early 1989.

During that time, Sills wrote two published opinions which are now “landmarks in their fields,” Crosby said. In one, the court held that it was illegal for Santa Ana police to strike, and in another, the panel decided that the city of Stanton had illegally tried to zone an adult bookstore out of business.

“I thought it showed both sides of him, because here was one traditionally conservative decision, which prevented a strike by police, and also a liberal one, defending the rights of an adult bookstore,” Crosby said. “I think it showed good balance on his part.”

Sills was an Irvine city councilman from 1976 to 1985, and served as mayor for four of those years, presiding over Irvine’s initial development boom. He challenged Nolan Frizelle (R-Huntington Beach) in the GOP primary for state Assembly in 1982 but lost.

A graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and the University of Illinois law school, Sills maintained a private law practice in Newport Beach and in Orange for 20 years, specializing in business litigation, before Deukmejian appointed him to the Superior Court in 1985.

For most of his time in Superior Court, Sills has handled civil cases, and he has spent the last year assigned to complex litigation, including the sprawling investors’ dispute that stemmed from the collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan.

Sills is Ronald Reagan’s former son-in-law, having been married to Maureen Reagan from 1964 to 1967, when Reagan was governor of California. Sills’ current wife, Susan, is in public relations.