Monday, January 23, 2006
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Justice Chin Recuperating After Surgery, to Miss Oral Arguments Next Month
By a MetNews Staff Writer
California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin is recuperating from surgery and will miss next month’s oral arguments in Sacramento, a court spokesperson said Friday.
Chin missed the oral argument calendar two weeks ago due to what Chief Justice Ronald M. George described at the time as “a minor medical procedure.” He then missed the court conference last week, prompting rumors of a serious illness.
Chin released a statement through the court.
“I underwent surgery which was successful in stopping some subdural bleeding which was the cause of severe headaches that I was experiencing,” the justice said. “I anticipate a full recovery in the near future.”
An aide to the justice said that “no date has been cemented for his return.”
Court spokeswoman Lynn Holton said that all of the attorneys who argued before the court in January had agreed to allow Chin to participate in those decisions after reviewing tapes of the arguments. It is too early to tell whether a similar procedure will be used in February, she told the MetNews.
The court has a procedure for replacing absent justices at the chief justice’s discretion. Justices of the Court of Appeal who have served at least one year serve according to an alphabetical rotation.
Chin, 63, was appointed to the court by then-Gov. Pete Wilson in 1996. He previously served as a justice and later presiding justice on the First District Court of Appeal, and before that was an Alameda Superior Court judge after having been a successful civil trial lawyer.
He was an Alameda County prosecutor earlier in his career.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company