Charles W. Stoll dies at 78; judge pioneered civil settlement program

Charles W. Stoll, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who pioneered a civil referee program to negotiate settlements of pending civil cases in Glendale and Burbank, has died. He was 78.

Stoll, who had been on medical disability leave in the last few weeks, died April 8 of multiple organ failure at Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank, according to his longtime girlfriend, Peggy Johnson.

A well-respected judge, Stoll was appointed to the bench in 1989 by then-Gov. George Deukmejian. He served briefly at the Eastlake Juvenile Court before moving to Glendale, where he presided over civil cases.

Stoll served as the North Central District supervising judge for several years and as the site judge in Glendale who is in charge of administrative issues in the courthouse.

But his biggest accomplishment was helping establish the Civil Referee Assisted Settlement Hearing program, or CRASH. In this program created in 1993, the Glendale court ordered cases into CRASH, usually after a trial date was set, and attorneys with expertise that might be particularly relevant to the proceedings met with parties to explore possible settlement options. It was a last-ditch effort to settle a case before trial, and in the first few years, it was effective about 50% of the time. It also helped reduce the heavy caseload in the Glendale court.

A native of Philadelphia, Stoll was born March 15, 1931. He grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and graduated from Syracuse University in 1952. He served in the Korean War as an Air Force pilot and was discharged as a captain in 1955.

After leaving the service, he earned his law degree at USC and then joined the office of the county counsel, a post he held until 1963. He then joined the law firm of Irsfeld, Irsfeld and Younger, for which he handled civil litigation, including construction, commercial and product liability cases.

In 1986, he applied for a judicial position.

His judicial career was marred in 1996 by a public admonishment from the California Commission on Judicial Performance, which criticized him for not disqualifying himself in a case involving the Walt Disney Co. even though he owned $45,000 worth of stock in the company.

“It never occurred to me that the thousand shares I had in an IRA account was enough to disqualify me,” Stoll told The Times. “I ‘fessed up to it when I learned about it.”

Stoll was also admonished by the commission for using court stationery to write two letters to a collection agency on behalf of a family member. Stoll admitted to writing the letters in question but noted that he wrote “personal” on the top of each communication and said he was not attempting to use his influence as a judge.

In addition to Johnson, Stoll is survived by sons Robert, Michael and Spencer and daughters Lisa and Kimberley.

Instead of flowers, the family suggests donations to CARMA, the Thoroughbred retirement organization, at P.O. Box 1086, Sierra Madre, CA 91025-9086 or the Glendale Humane Society, 717 Ivy St., Glendale, CA 91204.

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jon.thurber@latimes.com