Appeals Court Justice Abbe Retires : Courts: The jurist wrote a decision in July overturning an order that forced a mother to move to be near her ex-husband or lose custody of her son.

Second District Court of Appeal Justice Richard W. Abbe announced his retirement Wednesday, ending an eight-year tenure distinguished by rulings that clarified issues of family law and environmental protection.

Abbe was appointed from the Superior Court bench of Shasta County in 1982 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown to the district’s new Sixth Division, covering Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Presiding Justice Steven J. Stone said Wednesday that he will miss the 64-year-old Democrat.

“We’re dear friends and I’m terribly sorry to lose him,” said Stone, who became a bicycling partner of Abbe after the two were appointed to the Sixth Division along with Justice Arthur Gilbert.

Stone said Abbe’s style on the bench was marked by “a lot of common sense, complete intellectual honesty and a real sensitivity to the unempowered--those who are unable to penetrate the system or get justice or who are badly treated because of their lack of power.”

Abbe, who was born in Paris on Jan. 6, 1926, graduated in 1953 from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco after serving as a tail gunner in Navy dive bombers during World War II.

After five years in private practice, he joined the Shasta County district attorney’s office, eventually serving as district attorney from 1962 to 1965.

Abbe said that after serving eight years on the appeals court and 18 years on the Superior Court in Redding, he was ready to retire and enter private practice as a judge-for-hire.

The line of people hoping to replace him upon his retirement “is enormous,” Abbe said. “There are very few trial judges that wouldn’t want to be on the Court of Appeal. “I was just waiting around, hoping there might be a Democrat-elected governor, but that isn’t going to happen for a while and I’m indifferent as to which Republican (Gov. Deukmejian or Gov.-elect Pete Wilson) appoints my successor,” Abbe said in an interview Wednesday evening.

“He’s such an outstanding jurist and a person with such great integrity and scholarship and humor, and I was really sorry to see him go,” said Gilbert, who was attending a conference in San Diego when he learned of Abbe’s retirement. “I’m saddened by his departure, but I’m glad for him because he can do other things now.”

Lawyers who have argued before the Sixth Division have often complimented the justices for the good humor and camaraderie they project during oral arguments.

And Gilbert said the three have been so close that Abbe’s departure will be similar to breaking up a family.

“We’re a very casual group, we wear casual clothes to work, we can walk into each other’s office and tell each other exactly what we think,” he said. “We get into heated arguments which in no way affect our work and (Abbe) is a person I can say anything to. . . . We argue back and forth and have very spirited debates, and we’re sort of like three brothers. That’s why I feel a certain sense of loss.”

The appeals court’s Sixth Division is widely regarded as the court of last resort for many cases because the California Supreme Court accepts relatively few cases for review--particularly family law cases.

“Family law is one of those areas judges most often dislike because it’s bound up with emotion, and the law is far less precise than in other fields,” said Gertrude D. Chern, a family lawyer from Santa Maria. “These gentlemen never disclose any distaste for family law cases, and that’s very important. They treat the cases with the same dignity as a big case involving developers.”

Stone and Gilbert said one of the most important rulings written by Abbe in recent years was on the bitter custody case involving 8-year-old Joshua Fingert.

In July Abbe wrote the decision that overturned a Ventura County Superior Court order that forced a San Francisco mother to move to be near her ex-husband in Ventura or lose custody of her son. Abbe’s ruling said that the Superior Court was wrong to decide that the mother, Pamela Besser, should move to be near the father, Michael Fingert, merely because she earned less than he did.

That ruling “established a parent’s right to live where they wished to live” and solidified women’s rights in divorce proceedings, Gilbert said.