California Third District Court of Appeal Holds Session in King Hall

Justice Butz, Presiding Justice Raye, Justice MauroThe California Court of Appeal for the Third District heard arguments in two cases in King Hall's Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom on September 24.  The justices also conducted a question-and-answer session for students.

Dean Kevin R. Johnson opened the proceedings with welcoming remarks.  "We are especially pleased to have the justices here, and pleased to be able to give our students a real-life opportunity to see justice in action, to hear real-life arguments of real cases, involving real people, real disputes, and also to have an opportunity to interact with the justices," he said. 

Dean Johnson pointed out that the three-judge panel assembled for the hearings included two King Hall alumni, Justice Kathleen Butz '81 and Justice Louis Mauro '87.  In addition, Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye is a longtime friend of the School of Law and a mentor to one of its most distinguished alumni, Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye '84, Dean Johnson noted.

"King Hall has enriched the legal community, particularly the Sacramento community but also communities throughout this state, with the fine lawyers who graduate from here," Justice Vance said in his opening remarks.  "There are many graduates of King Hall who appear before us, and as the dean has mentioned, my trusted colleagues on either side of me are graduates of King Hall."

The Court heard arguments in People v. Joanna Lorraine Peterson, a case involving the appeal of a Superior Court decision to nullify a plea agreement in a murder case, and Albert Garland v. Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, an appeal of a $250,000 fine related to the discharge of sediment-laden water into what the appellants argued were "ephemeral drainages and ditches" that ought not to have been protected under the Clean Water Act.

About 80 students, faculty, and staff observed the proceedings from inside the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom and many more watched on video screens around King Hall.  Video of the session is available on the Law School intranet.

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