Miles Lord

Miles Lord
Miles Lord
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
	In office; 1981–1985
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
	In office; April 28, 1966 – July 1, 1985
Appointed by	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Dennis F. Donovan
Succeeded by	David S. Doty
22nd Attorney General of Minnesota
	In office; January 3, 1955 – May 4, 1960
Governor	Orville Freeman
Preceded by	Joseph A. A. Burnquist
Succeeded by	Walter Mondale
Personal details
Born	Miles Welton Lord; November 6, 1919; Dean Lake, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	December 10, 2016 (aged 97); Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.
Children	Jim, Priscilla, Miles Jr., Virginia
Alma mater	University of Minnesota; University of Minnesota Law School
Profession	Judge, attorney

Miles Welton Lord (November 6, 1919 – December 10, 2016) was a federal judge, appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota by President Lyndon B. Johnson on February 10, 1966 to fill the vacancy left by Judge Dennis F. Donovan. He served as chief judge on the district court from 1981 to 1985 and retired in September 1985.^[1] He then practiced law in Minnesota.^[2]

Biography

Lord was born in Dean Lake, Minnesota. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1946 and his law degree from University of Minnesota Law School in 1948. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1944 to 1945 and served as an Assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota in 1951. He became Minnesota’s Attorney General from 1955 to 1960 and a full U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 1961 until his appointment to the Federal bench in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson.^[1] Judge Lord was the founding attorney of Lord & Associates Law Office. His daughter, Priscilla Lord now carries on her father's legacy at the law office.

Lord lived in Chanhassen, Minnesota. His son Jim served in the Minnesota State Senate and as Minnesota State Treasurer and died on June 6, 2008. His eldest daughter, Priscilla Lord, ran against satirist Al Franken in the Democratic Party primary in 2008 for the Senate seat held by Norm Coleman. Miles Lord, Jr. (Mick) served as a top assistant to State Auditor Robert W. Mattson, Jr. and later managed the business affairs of the Miles Lord & Associates law office prior to his death on April 12, 2012. Miles' youngest daughter, Virginia, is a lawyer and real estate agent for Coldwell Banker Burnet in Wayzata, Minnesota. Lord died on December 10, 2016 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.^[3]

Controversy

Lord was called an activist judge.^[4]^[5] His critics accuse him of using the law as a means to make corporations pay for the damages caused, both directly or indirectly, to people and to the environment.

Landmark decisions

In his first landmark and historic decision in 1973, when the Reserve Mining Company's processing plant at Silver Bay, Minnesota was dumping 47 tons of waste rock into Lake Superior every minute, Lord ultimately forced Reserve to stop dumping the pollutants, taconite tailings. In the Reserve Mining decision, Lord said, "This court cannot honor profit over human life."^[6] Later, he pursued the A. H. Robins Company for malpractice in issuing the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device, which was on sale from 1970 to 1974 and caused at least 18 deaths and thousands of injuries (350,000 women have claimed injury).^[7] The trial was for the injured, as he felt the deaths were too hard to "pinpoint the responsibility".

The whole cost-benefit analysis is warped. They say, well you can kill so many people if the benefits are great enough. Then they can take the benefits and circulate them through the given industry, they circulate them through the oil company, through the gasoline station, through the garage, the hardware store, the drugstore, the shoemaker, the grocery store, and if they don't have enough statistics there they just circulate them through a bunch of other businesses. Once they put a price on human life, all is lost. Life is sacred. Life is priceless.^[7]

Lord's rebuke to the corporate heads held them personally accountable. To settle seven lawsuits, he made Robins' top three executive sign a $4.6 million settlement agreement and personally held them liable. The company ended up paying more than $220 million in compensation and $13 million in punitive damages to thousands of plaintiffs. In 1980 in the case of Shyamala Rajender versus the University of Minnesota, Lord ordered the university to desist from discrimination against women.

Judicial review

Because of his decisions in the Robbins case, a judicial review panel met to determine if there were errors on his professional and judicial conduct.^[8] Lord was cleared of wrongdoing and went on to serve another year until his retirement.^[9]

References

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Joseph A. A. Burnquist	Minnesota Attorney General 1955–1960	Succeeded by Walter Mondale
Preceded by Dennis F. Donovan	Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota 1966–1985	Succeeded by David S. Doty

[bio-1] Miles Welton Lord at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

[2] Miles Lord Attorney (Law Offices of Lord & Associates) webpage, accessed June 11, 2013.

[3] Miles Lord, one of Minnesota's influential and controversial judges, has died

[4] MN Public Radio "Miles Lord remains an activist"

[5] "Judge Miles Lord: Still mining the case" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine

[6] Time Magazine, The Classic Case, Monday, May. 06, 1974

[MNM-7] An interview with Lord

[8] Time Magazine, “A Panel Tries to Judge a Judge”, Jul. 23, 1984, By MICHAEL S. SERRILL

[9] “AROUND THE NATION; Panel Dismisses Action Against Federal Judge”, December 27, 1984

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