Daily Journal profiles Hon. Justice Kathryn Doi Todd
June 02, 2004Below is a reprint from a June 2, 2004 Daily Journal profile of APABA Advisory Boardmember Judge Kathryn Doi Todd.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL MARKS JURIST’S WORK, PERSONAL LIFE
Attention to Detail Marks Justice’s Work
Kathryn Doi Todd
Associate Justice
2nd District Court of Appeal (Los Angeles)
Career highlights: Elevated by Gov. Gray Davis to 2nd District Court of Appeal, 2000; elevated by Gov. Jerry Brown to Los Angeles Superior Court, 1981; appointed by Brown to Los Angeles Municipal Court, 1978; partner, Doi & Todd, 1976-78; sole practitioner, 1970-76
Law school: Loyola Law School, 1970
Age: 62
By Stefanie Knapp
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - Depending on the circles in which Kathryn Doi Todd is traveling, she’s either a 2nd District Court of Appeal justice or the mother of folk-singer Mia Doi Todd. Kathryn Doi Todd laughs at the memory of a New York University law student, who approached her daughter at a performance in the area and asked whether she was the justice’s daughter. The student was studying one of Kathryn Doi Todd’s cases at the time.
Likewise, at a Los Angeles party, a lawyer asked the justice whether she was the mother of Mia Doi Todd, who has made a name for herself as a singer/songwriter. While Todd, 62, dabbles in music herself, her forte is quizzing lawyers. “I’ve heard people in the audience say, ‘You know, if Doi Todd asks a question, you’d better have a darn good answer, because it could swing the decision one way or another,’” said Carla J. Feldman, a partner at Los Angeles’ Loeb & Loeb.
Todd’s questions are so detailed and specific that lawyers leave with the impression that Todd has thought carefully about the issues that the parties brought to court, Feldman added. “She didn’t ask a lot of questions,” said H. Joseph Escher III, who represented the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a case that came before the appellate court in 2002. “But they were very penetrating ones and very to the point.”
Gov. Gray Davis appointed Todd to the Court of Appeal in August 2000. She had served on the appellate court as a pro tem twice and had enjoyed it, she said. “I loved it,” Todd said. “I loved it the first time I did it on assignment.” The Court of Appeal was a nice change of pace from the trial court, she said. While she enjoyed her 22 years with the trial court, “there’s a lot that a trial judge has to manage,” Todd said. On the appellate court, she said, she can handle her work at her own pace, without having to worry about moving the case along for the sake of lawyers, litigants and jurors.
For example, while Todd served on the juvenile court, she heard 25 to 30 matters a day. “There was a lot of pressure every day,” Todd said. Now, she has time to reflect on each case, she said. Todd also enjoys the diversity of cases that she hears on the Court of Appeal. In Superior Court, a judge is assigned to a particular division - juvenile court, for instance - and hears only those types of cases, she said. Now she gets the full spectrum of cases. “After so long on the trial court,” Todd said, “I feel invigorated.” Although lawyers have high regard for her on the Court of Appeal, they miss her in Superior Court, they say. “We dearly miss her as one of the finest trial jurists,” Feldman said.
Todd has found her niche in Division 2 of the appellate court, however, and enjoys brainstorming with the other associate justices on her panel. “I really think that three heads are better than one any day,” she said. Sometimes, however, not all three justices agree on a case, and Todd is not afraid to write a dissent. “If I [see] the case differently and no changes can be made on the opinion that permit me to sign it,” she said, “then I’ll write a dissent.” The type of dissent that Todd writes depends on how important the case is. If it’s an unpublished case or one that is not of statewide importance, Todd states her reasons simply. If the state’s highest court is likely to take it up, however, she explains her reasons in more depth. “If it’s a case that I expect the Supreme Court to take a look at, … then I consider it very, very important and will write a full-fledged dissent so that all of the considerations that made me disagree with the majority … are articulated,” she said.
One such case involved R.J. Reynolds’ giving out free cigarettes to people older than 21 at festivals and fairs throughout the state. People v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, 122 Cal.App.4th 1377 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. 2003). The state sued the tobacco company, claiming that the give-away violated state law. The majority affirmed the trial court’s decision last year that the act violated a Health and Safety Code law. But Todd believed that a federal law pre-empted that state code and, therefore, R.J. Reynolds could distribute cigarettes to promote its product. The state Supreme Court granted review of the case Jan. 28. Escher credits the Supreme Court’s order, in part, to Todd’s dissent. “Of course, you can never tell for sure,” said Escher of San Francisco’s Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin.
Todd also wrote a dissent in an unpublished decision involving a suit brought by Mohamed Al Fayed against a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, an attorney and an alleged con artist, but she didn’t give a thorough explanation of her dissent. She simply stated that she disagreed with her colleagues. The three defendants in that case allegedly tried to sell Al Fayed phony CIA documents related to the automobile deaths of his son, Dodi Al Fayed, and Princess Diana. The three claimed that the documents contained proof that Princess Diana was pregnant at the time of the fatal Aug. 31, 1997, car crash and that British intelligence officers murdered the couple with the approval of Buckingham Palace. They demanded $20 million for the papers. Al Fayed sent $250,000, which the appellate court said he could recover. But he also sued for emotional-distress damages worth $5 million, which the court found he could not recover. Fayed v. Fleer, B137378 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. 2001). Todd disagreed. “In that case, I thought the allegations were sufficient for a parent to feel emotional distress, that’s all,” Todd said.
Todd never thought that she would be an attorney, let alone a judge. In fact, after graduating from Stanford University, Todd planned to join the Peace Corps. “I heard JFK speak,” she said of President Kennedy. “He was so inspirational that I signed up for the Peace Corps.” But Todd’s father suffered a severe stroke, and Todd had to stay home and care for her younger brothers and sisters while her mother tended the family grocery store. Todd got a part-time job at a local law firm and instantly took to the profession. “People would come in, and we could help them,” she said.
She soon enrolled at Loyola Law School, where she earned a degree in 1970. She opened a small law office in Little Tokyo. At that time, she was one of only three Japanese-American women lawyers in Los Angeles. She had a general practice with her brother, now Superior Court Judge David I. Doi. In 1978, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Todd to the Municipal Court. Three years later, Brown elevated her to the Superior Court, where she became one of the country’s first Asian-American women to sit on a Superior Court bench. There are many Asian-American lawyers now, but Todd remains sensitive to their needs. “I think it’s great for those who come into court … that there is such diversity,” she said. Todd recalled an oral argument she heard recently. Both the deputy attorney general and the defense attorney were Asian-American women.
Her sensitivity is deeply rooted in her childhood. She spent the first three years of her life in World War II relocation camps for Japanese-Americans, first in Wyoming and then at the Tule Lake facility in Northern California. She remains deeply involved in the Japanese-American community and continues to serve on the board of directors for the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center. The center, in downtown Los Angeles, provides performing, visual and literary arts programs. Its facilities include a theater and garden, which the center plans to refurbish. Todd sits on the committee that is heading that refurbishment.
Her other hobbies also are rooted in the arts. Her love of music has driven her to take piano lessons for the past three years, as well as sing with 11 other professional women. The group, called She Sings! made its public debut recently at a fund-raiser for the Pasadena Humane Society. Todd said the group performs “just for fun.” “Every aspect of her life is so aesthetically pleasing,” said Rita Gunasekaran, an appellate attorney at Los Angeles’ Haight, Brown & Bonesteel. Todd’s sense of beauty is apparent, Gunasekaran said, from the fresh cut flowers in her chambers, to the “amazing pieces of silk” that she wears, to the presentation of the food she serves at dinner, Gunasekaran said. Todd’s attention to detail translates into her work at the Court of Appeal, especially her opinions, said Gunasekaran, who has known Todd for 20 years. “She’s a very articulate writer,” Gunasekaran said.
Todd, who speaks German, Spanish and Japanese, is learning to speak French. Her love of languages is useful on international trips, she said. She traveled to Europe three times in the past year alone, twice to see her 28-year-old daughter, who was on a European tour. Mia Doi Todd performed in 31 cities in six weeks. The justice and her friends made like groupies and followed her daughter’s show from Paris to Dublin. Todd later flew to Holland to see her daughter perform at a music festival.
Back in her chambers, getting through all her cases can be as tiring as a 31-city tour. Six stacks of upcoming cases, each at least a foot high, sit on a shelf in her chambers, waiting for her and her research attorneys to study them. A stack of current cases sits on her desk. But Todd has no plans of throwing in her robe anytime soon. “There is a great tradition on the Court of Appeal for longevity … as far as women are concerned,” Todd said, citing the long appellate-court careers of fellow 2nd District Justices Mildred L. Lillie and Joan Dempsey Klein. “I’m really enjoying myself,” Todd said.
Here are some of Justice Todd’s recent opinions and the lawyers involved.
• Omar v. Ralph’s Grocery Co., 2004 DJDAR 6025 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. May 20, 2004) - forced arbitration of a wrongful-termination suit
For the appellant: Henry D. Lederman, Littler Mendelson, Walnut Creek
For the respondent: Paul A. Greenberg and Iris Weinmann, Greenberg & Weinmann, Santa Monica
• People v. Perez, 2004 DJDAR 5228 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. April 29, 2004) - reversed gang-enhancement stipulation in attempted murder conviction
For the appellant: Edward J. Haggerty, Rowland Heights
For the respondent: Lawrence M. Daniels and Ellen Birnbaum Kehr, attorney general’s office
• Zapanta v. Universal Care Inc., 132 Cal.Rptr.2d 842 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. April 16, 2004) - reversed granting of summary-judgment motion
For the appellant: Ave Buchwald, Blumberg Law Corp., Long Beach
For the respondent: Kristen J. Heim, Fonda & Fraser, Anaheim
• Melinda K. v. Superior Court, 11 Cal.Rptr.3d 129 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. 3365 March 16, 2004) - juvenile court finding favoring the mother cannot be challenged on appeal
For the appellant: Ellen L. Bacon, Huntington Beach
For real party in interest: Stephanie Jo Farrell, county counsel’s office
No appearance for respondent
• Albillo v. Intermodal Container Services Inc., 114 Cal.App.4th 190 (Cal. App. 2nd Dist. 2003) - workers’ compensation coverage
Attorneys for appellant: Stephen Glick, Fred J. Kumetz, Barbara A. Kumetz, Jeffrey A. Levinson and Joseph C. Watson, Kumetz & Glick, Los Angeles.
Attorneys for respondent: Robert F. Millman, Tony R. Skogen, Keith A. Jacoby and Fermin H. Llaguno, Littler Mendelson, Century City
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