Роджер Трейнор: Калифорнияның көрнекті судьясы және заң ғалымы

American judge

Roger John Traynor (February 12, 1900 – May 14, 1983) was the 23rd Chief Justice of California (1964–1970) and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from 1940 to 1964. Previously, he had served as a Deputy Attorney General of California under Earl Warren, and an Acting Dean and Professor of UC Berkeley School of Law. He is widely considered to be one of the most creative and influential judges and legal scholars of his time. A jurist noted for liberalism and activism, Traynor's 30 year career as California's 77th Justice coincided with demographic, social, and governmental growth in California and in the United States of America. After his retirement from the California Supreme Court, Traynor spent the last years of his life as a professor at the UC Hastings College of Law. In 1919, upon the advice of a high school teacher, he entered the University of California, Berkeley, though he had only $500 in savings to finance his college education. In 1939, he started serving as the Acting Dean of Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley, where he had earned his J. D. degree.

While he was a faculty member of the Berkeley Law School, Traynor also acted as a consultant to the California State Board of Equalization from 1932 to 1940, and to the United States Department of the Treasury from 1937 to 1940. In particular, he took a leave of absence from Berkeley in 1933 to work full time for the Board of Equalization, and another leave in 1937 to help the Treasury Department draft the Revenue Act of 1938. In January 1940, he started working part time as a Deputy Attorney General under California Attorney General Earl Warren (who later became Chief Justice of the United States). He was unanimously confirmed by the Qualifications Committee on August 13 and was sworn in the same day. In December 1940, he was retained by the voters in the election. In August 1964, Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson stepped down from the bench, and Governor Pat Brown appointed Traynor to the post.

His obituary in the New York Times noted that "Traynor was often called one of the greatest judicial talents never to sit on the United States Supreme Court." Traynor authored more than 900 opinions, and he gained a reputation as the nation's leading state court judge. During his tenure, the decisions of the Supreme Court of California became the most frequently cited by all other state courts in the nation. Several of Traynor's decisions were majority opinions that transformed California from a conservative and somewhat repressive state into a progressive, innovative jurisdiction in the forefront of American law. Traynor was also noted for the quality of his writing and reasoning, and was honored during his lifetime with membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (a rare honor for a judge). which was a major step towards the modern tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress. His 1948 opinion in Perez v. Sharp was the first instance of a state supreme court striking down a statute prohibiting miscegenation. Traynor also wrote a 1952 opinion that abolished the defense of recrimination in the context of divorce and paved the way for the social revolution of no fault divorce. But his most significant and well known contribution to contemporary American law is probably his 1963 creation of true strict liability in product liability cases. An earlier generation of judges had cautiously experimented with legal fictions like warranties to avoid leaving severely injured plaintiffs without any recourse. Traynor simply threw those away and imposed strict liability as a matter of public policy. To those skeptical of government's power to redress social wrongs, Traynor's extraordinary work is notable for the degree to which it asserted the judiciary's power to resolve difficult issues of public policy, and to redefine the boundaries of corporate and governmental liability. In his biography of Traynor, White wrote: "If California was a testing ground for governmental theories of modern liberalism, Traynor was an architect of a judicial role compatible with the activities of the modern liberal state." In July 1983, the California Law Review gave over all its space in issue 4, volume 71 to publishing eloquent tributes to Justice Traynor from several esteemed judges, law professors, and politicians, including Warren Burger, Henry Friendly, and Edmund G. Brown.

On January 2, 1970, Traynor announced his retirement in order to avoid losing eligibility for retirement benefits under a California law that stripped judges of most benefits if they chose to remain on the bench past age 70. He became chairman of the National News Council, concerned with freedom of the press. Afterwards, he retired to Berkeley and died there in his home from cancer.

Bernhard v. Bank of America, 19 Cal. 2d 807 (1942) a litigant could be collaterally estopped from relitigating an issue that had been previously decided in an earlier suit against a different party
Escola v. Coca Cola Bottling Co. of Fresno, 24 Cal. 2d 453 (1944) Early suggestion (in concurrence) of true strict liability for defective products
Perez v. Sharp, 32 Cal. 2d 711 (1948) overturning a state law prohibiting miscegenation, Civil Code Section 69. The Supreme Court of California was the first state supreme court to abolish such laws. State Rubbish Collectors Ass'n v. Siliznoff, 38 Cal. 2d 330 (1952) the cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED)
De Burgh v. De Burgh, 39 Cal. 2d 858 (1952) the defense of recrimination in the context of divorce
People v. Cahan, 44 Cal. 2d 434 (1955) the exclusionary rule barring admissibility of evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (as suggested by the U. S. Supreme Court in Wolf v. Colorado, ), though Cahan would be rendered moot by Mapp v. Ohio,
Pencovic v. Pencovic, 45 Cal. 2d 67 (1955) the rule that parents cannot evade their child support obligations through the invocation of freedom of religion by becoming ostensible religious gurus and founding religious communes. Drennan v. Star Paving Co., 51 Cal.2d 409, 333 P.2d 757 (1958). A party who has detrimentally relied on an offer that is revoked prior to acceptance may assert promissory estoppel to recover damages. This doctrine was incorporated into the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, but most jurisdictions have been loath to apply it except in cases involving general contractors relying on bids by subcontractors in competitive bid contracts (similar to the facts in Drennan). Muskopf v. Corning Hospital District, 55 Cal. 2d 211 (1961) overturned the doctrine of sovereign immunity, although the Legislature promptly overrode Muskopf with the Tort Claims Act of 1963 as explained in Biggers v. Sacramento City Unified School District, 25 Cal. App. 3d 269 (1972)
Bernkrant v. Fowler 55 Cal. 2d 588 (1961) the "moderate and restrained interpretation" doctrine for resolving conflict of laws problems
Greenman v. Yuba Power Products, Inc., 59 Cal. 2d 57 (1963) true strict liability in tort for defective products (see product liability) which a 1996 panel of tort law experts subsequently ranked as the top development in tort law of the past 50 years. Vandermark v. Ford Motor Co., 61 Cal. 2d 256 (1964) extension of such strict liability from manufacturers to retailers and all others involved in the "overall producing and marketing enterprise that should bear the cost of injuries resulting from defective products,"
Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. G. W. Thomas Drayage Co., 69 Cal. 2d 33 (1968) the rule that extrinsic evidence of trade usage or custom is admissible where relevant to prove a meaning to which the language of a contract is reasonably susceptible, undermining the parol evidence rule
Jones v. H. F. Ahmanson & Co., 1 Cal. 3d 93 (1969) the rule that majority shareholders of closely held corporations have a duty to not destroy the value of the shares held by minority shareholders

On August 23, 1933, Traynor married Madeleine Emilie Lackman, a woman who shared his love of learning: she already held a M. A. in political science from UC Berkeley and would go on to earn a J. D. in 1956.

High resolution portrait from Bancroft Library archives. California Digital Library, Calisphere.