Years-long delays in disposing of cases in the Third District Court of Appeal “were avoidable and inexcusable” but the Sacramento appellate court has taken “prompt and effective measures” to fix the problems, a Judicial Council committee concluded in a report released Monday.

The report, ordered by the chief justice and compiled by a group of appellate court justices, executives and attorneys, offers few specific details on how the cases were allowed to languish—some for nine to 10 years after full briefing. Those delays led to the forced retirement in June of the court’s administrative presiding justice, Vance Raye, after the Commission on Judicial Performance concluded the veteran jurist “failed to properly exercise his administrative and supervisory authority.”