Frank K. Richardson

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Frank Kellogg Richardson
California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District
In office
October 1971 – December 1, 1974
Appointed byGovernor Ronald Reagan
Personal details
Born(1914-02-13)February 13, 1914
St. Helena, California, U.S.
DiedOctober 5, 1999(1999-10-05) (aged 85)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Spouse
Betty Kingdon
​
(m. 1943)​
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Stanford University (AB, LLB)

Frank Kellogg Richardson (February 13, 1914 – October 5, 1999) was an American attorney and

Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
.

Early life and education

Born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] He attended the University of Pennsylvania his freshman year but transferred to Stanford University, where he earned an A.B. with distinction in political science in 1935 and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.[1] He then went on to earn his LL.B. from Stanford Law School in 1938.[1][2]

After being admitted to the California State Bar in 1938, Richardson entered private practice in Oroville sharing office space with retired Butte County Judge Hirman Gregory.[1]

Military service

During

First Lieutenant and had been awarded two service stars.[4]

Judicial career

Upon returning to California, Richardson resumed the private

Chief Justice of California that year, but Chief Justice Donald Wright refused to retire because he was "frightened" of the prospect of Richardson as Chief Justice.[7] In November 1978, Richardson stood for reelection and was retained.[8][9]

While on the court, Richardson wrote 212 dissenting opinions and 182 majority opinions.[10]

Among his 182 majority opinions, Richardson wrote the court's opinions in Daly v. General Motors Corp. (1978) 20 Cal.3d 725, applying comparative fault principles to actions brought in strict

Proposition 8, the Victims' Bill of Rights initiative.[1]

In 1979 and 1980, he wrote two

death penalty law: People v. Frierson and People v. Jackson (1980); Richardson's opinions helped guide the liberal court toward a judicial acceptance of the death penalty.[10]

Of Richardson's dissenting opinions, many served as models for majority decisions in later years of both the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court.[1]

One example of how Richardson was belatedly vindicated is his dissenting opinion in Royal Globe Ins. Co. v. Superior Court, 23 Cal. 3d 880 (1979), in which he articulated a conservative,

Malcolm M. Lucas wrote a majority opinion in Moradi-Shalal v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Companies, 46 Cal. 3d 287 (1988) that overruled Royal Globe, restored the status quo ante
(thereby making it much harder again to sue insurance companies), and adopted the rule articulated by Justice Richardson in his Royal Globe dissent. Justice Mosk filed a dissenting opinion attacking the majority for "exalt[ing] principal over principle."

Finally, in 2010, Associate Justice

tips
are the property of employees but does not create an express right to sue employers for seizing them):

We reject plaintiff's contention that our pronouncements in Moradi-Shalal should be tempered here because the significant amendments to section 351 were passed in 1973 and 1975, well before we decided that case in 1988. Plaintiff asserts that before Moradi-Shalal, the Legislature would have believed "that if they created a property right there was a remedy." First, our holding in Moradi-Shalal that the Legislature must clearly manifest an intent to create a private cause of action under a statute is hardly novel. [Citation.] Second, as relevant here, in Moradi-Shalal, we validated [Justice Richardson's] dissent in Royal Globe Ins. Co. v. Superior Court [citation], which had relied on a 1941 statute (see Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17070), to point out that 'the Legislature was fully capable of writing an unambiguous statute creating civil liability for particular unfair business practices. . . The legislative tools were at hand. They were not used.'[11]

Richardson unsuccessfully attempted to convince his fellow justices to move the Supreme Court from its traditional headquarters in San Francisco to Sacramento, the state's capital city.[1]

In March 1983, Richardson and his wife attended a dinner given in honor of a visit by Queen Elizabeth II to San Francisco.[12]

Post-judicial career

Richardson retired from the Court on December 2, 1983. Upon leaving the court, he served as a distinguished visiting professor of law at

William Clark.[10][13][14] Richardson left the post in 1985 and became a Nixon Fellow at the Whittier Law School that year.[3]

Richardson died at his Sacramento home of complications from Parkinson's disease on October 5, 1999.[10]

Personal life

While working as an usher at the local Methodist church,[1] Richardson met Betty Kingdon, whom he would marry on January 23, 1943.[4] Their marriage would produce four sons and last for 56 years until Frank Richardson's death in 1999.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "In Memoriam: Honorable Frank K. Richardson". California Supreme Court Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2006-10-02. Retrieved 2010-08-02.
  2. ^ "The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Reunion" (PDF). Stanford Lawyer: 16. Spring 1968. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e "California Court of Appeal, 3rd District: Former Justices: Frank K. Richardson". Judicial Council of California. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780160680595
    .
  5. ^ "SCBA Presidents". Sacramento County Bar Association. Retrieved September 18, 2017. 1962, Frank K. Richardson
  6. ^ Fernandez, Manny (October 7, 1999). "Frank Richardson, Former State Supreme Court Justice". San Francisco Gate. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  7. ^ United Press International (February 27, 1975). "Chief Justice feared who Reagan might appoint". Lodi News-Sentinel. p. 5.
  8. ^ "Final Sonoma County vote returns". Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar. No. 6. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 9 November 1978. p. A-13. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  9. ^ Perschbacher, Rex M. (1981). "Book Review: Judging Judges: The Investigation of Rose Bird and the California Supreme Court, by Preble Stoltz" (PDF). UC Davis Law Review. 16: 817, n. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  10. ^ a b c d e Woo, Elaine (October 8, 1999). "Ex-Justice Frank Richardson Dies". Los Angeles Times.
  11. ^ Lu v. Hawaiian Gardens Casino, 50 Cal. 4th 592, 601, fn. 6 (2010).
  12. ^ Radcliffe, Donnie (March 4, 1983). "Reigning on Her Parade". Washington Post. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  13. ^ "Nomination of Frank K. Richardson To Be Solicitor of the Department of the Interior". The American Presidency Project: Ronald Reagan. University of California Santa Barbara. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  14. ^ Cubbage, Rachel (1985). "Decisions of the United States Department of the Interior" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior. p. 1. Retrieved September 18, 2017. Mr. Frank K. Richardson served as Solicitor.

External links

See also

Legal offices
Preceded by
California Supreme Court

December 2, 1974 – December 2, 1983 		Succeeded by
Malcolm M. Lucas
Preceded by Presiding Justice of the
California Court of Appeal
, Third Appellate District
October 1971 – November 1974 		Succeeded by
Robert K. Puglia
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