Services Scheduled for Retired Justice Curry

Monday, March 13, 2017

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Services Scheduled for Retired Justice Curry

By a MetNews Staff Writer

DANIEL CURRY

1937-2017

Services have been scheduled for next week for retired Court of Appeal Justice Daniel A. Curry, who died Thursday at the age of 79.

Curry retired from the court in 2006 and became a private judge with Alternative Resolution Centers. A spokesperson there said he had continued to work up until a couple of months ago.

He was regarded as an excellent settlement judge and was popular with the attorneys and staff, the spokesperson said.

A onetime Air Force judge advocate and longtime business lawyer, Curry was serving as vice president and general counsel of Times Mirror Co., the parent of the Los Angeles Times, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson tapped him for the Los Angeles Superior Court in 1992. Wilson elevated him to Div. Four of the Court of Appeal in 1998.

Retired Justice J. Gary Hastings, who served on Div. Four the entire time Curry was there, described him Friday as “an excellent colleague, collegial and cordial even when disagreeing on issues.” Curry helped the court dig out of a severe backlog, Hastings recalled, “and never complained.”

Los Angeles attorney Brian Kabateck recalled growing up across the street from Curry and his family before Curry moved to Hawaii to become general counsel at Amfac Corp., and said he often called Curry for advice after he returned to Los Angeles to take the Times Mirror job.

He recounted:

“One day he asked me what I thought of Loyola Law School. I told him ‘great school but I think they have too many students and are too big.’ He chuckled and said ‘I agree and I’m on the board of the school.’ I felt a little embarrassed.”

Kabateck also recalled an appearance he made in front of Curry as a young lawyer. After the judge disclosed how long he’d known Kabateck, “I felt three years old again in court.”

After opposing counsel waived the conflict, Curry “quickly ruled against me!,” Kabateck said.

Div. Four Presiding Justice Norman Epstein remembered Curry as “a neat guy and a wonderful colleague” and recalled a visit to Curry’s garage, where Curry stored his “magnificent” collection of model trains.

“There it was, laid out over umpteen square yards of tables: the trains (passenger, open freight, boxcars, engines, coal cars, and whatever else),” Epstein remembered. “Strewn over hill and dale, towns, farms and villages, assembled in plenary session, and actually running.”

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victor Chavez said Curry was “a dear friend from when we were Law School students.” The justice “had a remarkable career,” he said, and “was a great husband and Dad.”

A graduate of Loyola University and Loyola Law School, Curry practiced in El Monte with Wolford, Johnson, Pike & Covell from 1964 to 1965 and in Los Angeles with Demetriou & Del Guercio from 1965 to 1967. He worked at Technicolor, Inc. in Hollywood from 1967 to 1970, then spent the next 17 years at Amfac, dividing time between Honolulu and San Francisco, before joining Times Mirror.

Besides serving on Loyola Law School’s Board of Overseers and Loyola Marymount University’s Board of Trustees, Curry was a member of the American Bar Association Committee on Corporate Law Departments and served on the boards of the Los Angeles Oncologic Institute, the Hawaii Medical Library, the Palama Settlement in Honolulu, and Chaminade University of Honolulu.

Services for Curry are to take place March 22 at 10 a.m. at American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach.