Marcus Cauffman ("Max" or "Dick") Sloss (February 28, 1869 – May 17, 1958) was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

from December 19, 1906, to March 1, 1919.

Early life and education

Sloss was born in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

, to Sarah Greenebaum and Louis Sloss, while they were traveling from their home in San Francisco. His father was born in 1823 in

Bavaria, Germany Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and in 1848 emigrated to the United States. Comments of Eustace Cullinan. The next year Sarah and Louis crossed the plains on a wagon train to

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. Taken from Address of M.C. Sloss on October 15, 1931, at the Society of California Pioneers, honoring Louis Sloss In 1861, the family moved to San Francisco. He founded Louis Sloss & Company, later named the

Alaska Commercial Company The Alaska Commercial Company (ACC) is a company that operated retail stores in Alaska during the early period of Alaska's ownership by the United States. From 1901 to 1992, it was known as the Northern Commercial Company (NCC). In 1992, it resumed ...

, and sold supplies to the gold prospectors. He served as a Regent of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

from 1885 until his death in 1902. Marcus attended the public schools and graduated from

Boys High School Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

. In 1886, he entered

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and in 1890 received his

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree, magna cum laude and

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. He studied at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and in 1893 was awarded both

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degrees.

Legal and judicial career

After graduation, Sloss return to San Francisco and joined the firm of Chickering, Thomas & Gregory, where he became a partner. In November 1900, Sloss was elected judge of the

San Francisco Superior Court The Superior Court of California of the County of San Francisco is the Superior Courts of California, state superior court with jurisdiction over the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco. History In 1976 the Court helped to create the ...

for a term commencing January 1, 1901. In 1906, Governor

George Pardee George Cooper Pardee (July 25, 1857 – September 1, 1941) was an American doctor of medicine and politician. As the 21st Governor of California, holding office from January 7, 1903, to January 9, 1907, Pardee was the second native-born Californ ...

appointed Sloss to the California Supreme Court when he was 37 years old. He was re-elected twice to the high court: in November 1906, and again in 1910. In 1919, he resigned to return to private practice with Sloss, Ackerman & Bradley, and later with his two sons and John G. Eliot, under the firm name of Sloss & Eliot. Sloss' notable cases include ''Western Indemnity Co. v. Pillsbury'' (1913). In that case, Sloss wrote the opinion upholding the constitutionality of the State's

Workers' Compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

Act when other state courts had struck down the progressive scheme. In private practice, his prominent cases include ''Tulare Dist. v. Lindsay-Strathmore Dist.'' (1935), a complex water law matter, and ''Meridian, Ltd. v. San Francisco'' (1939), concerning the city's role in the

Hetch Hetchy Hetch Hetchy is a valley, a reservoir, and a water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years bef ...

aqueduct. Sloss was appointed the arbitrator to the National Longshoremen's Board established during the

1934 West Coast waterfront strike The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934 when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was chair of the National War Labor Board's regional advisory committee.

Bar and civic activities

Sloss was a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

, and a governor of both the

California State Bar The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

and the

Bar Association of San Francisco The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) was established in 1872 as a nonprofit legal membership organization that provides San Francisco legal professionals with networking, educational and pro bono opportunities in order to better serve the com ...

. In 1913, Sloss was elected vice-president of the Harvard Alumni Association, and in 1926 was a regional chairman of the Harvard Law School fundraising drive. He was a fundraiser for the

Jewish National Fund Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...

, and was devoted to other Jewish charities. From 1930 to 1950, Sloss was a trustee of Stanford University. He was also a member of the

Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of journal ...

Personal life

In June 1899 he married Hattie L. Hecht of Boston, Massachusetts. They had a daughter, Margaret Sloss Kuhns, and two sons, Richard L. and Frank H., who both graduated from Harvard Law School and joined their father's firm.

References

External links

M. C. Sloss
California Supreme Court Historical Society.
In Memoriam: M. C. Sloss
50 Cal. Rpts. 2d 867.
Opinions authored by M. C. Sloss
Courtlistener.com.

California State Courts. Retrieved July 19, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sloss, M.C. 1869 births 1958 deaths Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni Justices of the Supreme Court of California 20th-century American judges Superior court judges in the United States 20th-century American lawyers Lawyers from San Francisco American people of German-Jewish descent Stanford University trustees