By Greg Mitchell

Alex McDonald was something of a stealth appointment to the Fourth District Court of Appeal's Division One, having never served as a trial judge. Even his 30 years as a lawyer were spent on the transactional, rather than litigation, side. He was a significant contributor to Pete Wilson's gubernatorial campaign in the two years before his appointment (see below).

As a jurist, McDonald appears to be a typical Wilson appointment: centrist on civil issues, moderately conservative on criminal justice. McDonald did endear himself to the Association of Californians for Tort Reform by rejecting a theory of strict liability for faulty pipes in Zamora v. Shell Oil, 55 Cal.App.4th 204, and his opinion in the fascinating Russian roulette case 20th Century Insurance Co. v. Stewart, 63 Cal.App.4th 1333, went in favor of insurers. On the other hand, he ruled that a suicide caused by employment-related stress must be covered by workers' comp.

Similarly in the criminal arena, McDonald cheered prosecutors by upholding prostitution convictions in People v. Pulliam, 62 Cal.App.4th 1430, that were based on little more than loitering and waving, and the Supreme Court seems likely to affirm his ruling in People v. Martinez, 57 Cal.App.4th 166, that Proposition 115 eliminated California's speedy trial rules. On the other hand, he violated a cardinal rule of California jurisprudence -- thou shalt not rule in favor of a drunken driver -- in People v. Snook, 49 Cal.App.4th 289, earning a swift reversal from the Supremes.

From reading his opinions one gets the sense McDonald is more interested in civil than criminal issues: His only dissent to date came on the hot-button issue of prejudgment interest. One other opinion of note: In Hoover-Reynolds v. Superior Court, 50 Cal.App.4th 1273, McDonald ruled that a divorce attorney's lien did not take priority over a bankrupt father's child support payments, which probably didn't earn him any friends in the family bar.

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: McDonald gave $3,650 to Wilson's guberntorial campaigns during the 1990s, including $2,750 in the two years prior to McDonald's appointment. He also contributed a total of $750 to Democratic Assembly candidate Susan Davis from 1992 to 1996.