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C.A. Justice Daniel A. Curry Slates May Retirement
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Daniel A. Curry will hear oral argument as a justice of the Court of Appeal for the last time today, and will spend the time between Monday and May 1 wrapping up his work on opinions.
The jurist, who has sat on Div. Four in Los Angeles since 1998, said yesterday that when he leaves the bench, he will “take a deep breath, and do a few things” and “examine where I go from there.”
He said he “might do some private judging” and might travel, perhaps to Ireland, which he has visited in the past.
Explaining his decision to retire, Curry said:
“I’m going to be 69 next week. I’ve working since I was 15 or going to school full-time.”
He observed that “there’s a conception that it’s easy to be on the Court of Appeal.” To the contrary, Curry said, “it’s pretty demanding.”
He added:
“It’s an intellectual grind every day. I was amazed at the workload.”
He said he has nonetheless enjoyed being on the appeals court, citing as one reason the high degree of collegiality in Div. Four. He described his colleagues on the panel as “real scholars and real gentlemen.”
Superior Court Service
Curry related that in some ways, the job of a trial judge is more rewarding. He served on the Los Angeles Superior Court from 1992-1998.
On the appellate bench, he mentioned, “you don’t get the good warm feelings you get from settling a case.”
One case which he and two other Superior Court judges each handled portions of was an action by Texaco against about 120 insurers in connection with the costs of toxic waste clean-up—a case which generated more than a billion pages of discovery documents. It was settled, he said, on the eve of trial.
Times Post
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Curry was vice president and general counsel to the Times Mirror Company, a post he assumed in 1987. He previously worked for Technicolor, Inc., Amfac, Inc., and Member Management Council, and was a litigator with Demetriou & Del Guercio.
Curry was a captain in the United States Air Force and served in the Judge Advocate General’s corps from 1961-64.
The jurist earned his law degree from Loyola Law School and his undergraduate degree from Loyola University.
He and his wife, Joy, have six adult children, who are visiting him in connection with his last week of oral argument.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company