Monday, November 3, 2003
Page 7
Perspectives (Column)
Deservedly, Justice Lillie Will Be Honored
By ROGER M. GRACE
On Thursday, members of the legal community will gather in the Civic Center for a ceremony renaming the county Law Library Building, at First and Broadway, in honor of the late Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Mildred L. Lillie. No more fitting a tribute could be imagined.
Lillie died after more than half a century of service as a judge, the jurisprudence of this state having been enriched by her to a greater extent than by any other jurist. She was a revered figure, now a part of California’s history.
The decision to so dedicate that building was a “natural.” The state building at Third and Spring, where she last worked, could not be named in her honor; from the day it was opened, it bore the name of a California governor who had gone on to higher office. The Central Courthouse and the Criminal Courts Building had already been renamed.
The one non-federal building in the Civic Center which is related to law is the Law Library. Of course, that building should be renamed the Mildred L. Lillie Law Library Building.
But it would not be happening if someone had not led the effort.
Court of Appeal Justice Earl Johnson Jr., who sat with Lillie on Div. Seven, came up with the idea. He bounced it off his Div. Eight colleague, Paul Boland (who had been a pro tem on Div. Seven for well over a year before his elevation). Boland embraced the idea, and joined Johnson in spearheading the effort.
Also active in promoting the renaming were Johnson’s Div. Seven cohorts, Dennis Perluss (Lillie’s successor as presiding justice) and Fred Woods, as well as members of other divisions, Presiding Justices Vaino Spencer and Arthur Gilbert and Justices Robert Mallano, Norman Epstein, and Kathryn Doi Todd.
A Dec. 26, 2002 letter signed by the presiding justices of seven of the divisions in this district, and by Johnson as acting presiding justice of Div. Seven, pointed out to Los Angeles County Law Library Board of Trustees President Susan Steinhauser:
“Mildred Lillie was the first woman to serve as an appellate judge in Los Angeles County, being appointed in 1958. Although not the first, she also was among the very first women to serve as a trial judge in this county, initially on the Municipal Court starting in 1947 and then on the Superior Court to which she was elevated in 1949. Justice Lillie served on the appellate bench for 44 years, and served as a judicial officer of Los Angeles County and of the State of California for 55 years, thus achieving the longest continuous term of service of any judge or justice in the history of California.
“Although the length of her tenure is remarkable, her pioneering role as the first woman appellate justice in Los Angeles sets her apart and makes her role in the evolution of our legal community truly distinguished. She also was a leader on our court. The last eighteen years she was Presiding Justice of Division 7 and for several years, and into her eighties, she was the Administrative Presiding Justice for our District. During her years on the bench she decided and authored thousands of cases that earned the respect and affection of the bench and bar and a wide segment of the community at large. We dare say that no other member of the Los Angeles judiciary was so universally well known and admired as Justice Lillie.”
Words of support came also from the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. and the Long Beach Bar Assn., and from then-Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge James Bascue.
In her letter on behalf of LACBA, then-President Miriam Krinsky wrote:
“As lawyers, we understand and appreciate the many challenges Justice Lillie faced in becoming a lawyer and a judge at a time when professional women faced tremendous resistance and obstacles. That Justice Lillie was able not only to meet those challenges but also to serve as a sitting judge for over half a century bespeaks an extraordinary commitment to law and to the public interest.
“It is hard to imagine a more fitting tribute to Justice Lillie than to give her name to our County’s largest public repository of legal knowledge—a repository to whose holdings she contributed more than any other single person.”
Douglas W. Otto, as president of the Long Beach Bar Assn., commented that Justice Lillie’s “extraordinary commitment to the law and public interest is known by all.”
Bascue expressed “strong personal support for the project.”
A motion by Supervisor Mike Antonovich to “request the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Law Library” to designate their main building the “Justice Mildred Lillie County Law Library” was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 7.
That motion recited that Justice Lillie “was universally respected and admired by litigants, attorneys and judicial officers for her logic and even-handed approach to dispensing justice.”
On Jan. 22, the board’s request came before the trustees. (Under Bus. & Prof. Code §6300, it’s the Board of Trustees that “governs the law library,” and had final say over the renaming.)
Opposition was voiced during a public comment period by Peter Baxter who, whether denominated a “gadfly” or just a “pest,” is oft heard railing at Board of Supervisors’ sessions. He doesn’t want public buildings named after anybody.
Unpersuaded by Baxter, Steinhauser, along with attorney Kenneth Klein and Superior Court Judges Abe Khan and Jan Pluim, voted in favor of the resolution to rename the building.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Yaffe cast the lone dissenting vote.
Yaffe explained to me, when cornered:
“I did not oppose the renaming. The resolution was not limited to the re-naming. The other part of the resolution was to pay a party planner 20 to 30 thousand dollars to plan a fundraiser at which we hoped to defer the costs of the re-naming.
“I did not think it was prudent for the library to do that.”
The resolution read:
“RESOLVED, that the Board of Library Trustees supports, in principle, the naming of the Law Library Building in memory of Justice Mildred Lillie and directs the Ad Hoc Naming Committee to move ahead on an event to celebrate said naming.”
Yaffe could have asked that the question be divided. That way, that he could have registered his protest to the party-planning, and still made unanimous the action to honor Justice Lillie. But, exercising good judgment just isn’t something that comes naturally to Yaffe.
If you would like to come to the dedication of the building, contact Charley Dobbs at (310) 264-9200.
And if you do come, be sure to glare at the fellow who voted against the resolution to effect the renaming, should he have the temerity to show up.
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company