Conflict of Interest in California
Posted on | January 15, 2008
California workers’ case has been effectively squashed by rampant conflict of interest on the state’s Supreme Court:
SAN FRANCISCO - For years, Braxton Berkley was exposed to chemicals while helping build top-secret military planes at Lockheed Martin’s storied Skunk Works plant. He says those chemicals made him ill — but his case reached a dead end at the state’s highest court.
The California Supreme Court has refused to hear his appeal not on legal merits, but because four of the seven justices cited a conflict of interest because they controlled stock in oil companies that provided some of the solvents at issue in the case.
“It’s unfair and I am very disgusted with the courts,” said Berkley, who worked at Lockheed during the height of the Cold War and is now a minister in Pacoima, Calif. He suffers from diabetes and arthritis that he says were caused by the chemicals. “A lot of my friends died because of the toxic chemicals we handled.”
It’s common for at least one justice to bow out of a case because of a financial or personal conflict. California Chief Justice Ron George, for instance, recuses himself from cases handled by the prominent law firm where his son practices. In those situations, an appellate judge is temporarily appointed to the Supreme Court to hear that case.
George said the remaining justices decided to dismiss the case because they were concerned that a Supreme Court ruling made with a majority of temporary justices wouldn’t hold the same weight as an opinion of the permanent court.
It appears that these corporations can now kill any case against them by appealing to the California Supreme Court. No word on why the justices have not resigned, or been forced to divest.
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