Armand Arabian, who served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court for 
six years starting in 1990, died March 28. He was 83. During the 18 years before Governor George Deukmejian appointed him to the state high court, Arabian was a judge or justice of the municipal court, superior court, and Court of Appeal.
Obituaries for Justice Arabian appear in the Los Angeles Times, the Daily Journal [subscription], and the Metropolitan News.
I have two personal memories of oral arguments before Justice Arabian. In a Court of Appeal case where I was representing the respondent, Justice Arabian asked me whether “substantial justice” had been achieved in the superior court. It was not a friendly question, and it reflected the later adverse opinion. Conversely, during a Supreme Court argument, in which I was representing the petitioner on review, Arabian’s repeated softball questions to me and hostile inquiries to opposing counsel so clearly foretold the court’s ultimate unanimous favorable decision that I waived my rebuttal argument.
