(a) When there is no Judge qualified or available to hear a cause, action or hearing in the Superior Court, the Presiding Judge shall request the Chief Justice to appoint a Judge pro tempore to hear the matter. Such Judge pro tempore shall meet the same qualifications as a regularly appointed Judge of the Superior Court or be appointed in accordance with Guam law. When there is no Justice qualified or available to hear a cause, action, or hearing in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice shall appoint a Justice pro tempore to participate in the matter. Such Justice pro tempore shall meet the same qualifications as a regularly appointed Justice of the Supreme Court or be appointed in accordance with Guam law. (b) In order to provide for the orderly use of Judges or Justices pro tempore such Judge or Justice shall be appointed from among a list maintained by the Chief Justice of qualified and available persons. To be qualified for appointment, such person shall be qualified as specified in this § 6108 of this Chapter. Judges or Justices pro tempore shall not be confirmed by I Liheslatura. (c) The compensation of Judges or Justices pro tempore shall be determined by the Chief Justice at the time of their appointment, but shall not exceed the salary scale of Judges of the Superior Court or Justices of the Supreme Court, as the case may be. (d) The procedure, after appointment, for assigning a Judge or Justice pro tempore and for limiting his or her term shall be the same as for the assignment of a retired Judge or Justice and the limitation of his or her term. SOURCE: Added by P.L. 21-147:2 (Jan. 14, 1993). Subsection (a) amended by P.L. 24-135:2 (Feb. 20, 1998), P.L. 24-139:17 (Feb. 21, 1998) (But see Court Decisions annotation below), P.L. 27-031:18 (Oct. 31, 2003). COURT DECISIONS: Pangelinan v. Gutierrez, 2000 Guam 11 ¶ 8 (“We find that Bill 495 [designated as P.L. 24- 139] was pocket vetoed and that the Legislature’s subsequent actions did not serve to ratify Bill 495.”), aff’d by Gutierrez v. Pangelinan, 276 F.3d 539 (9th Cir. 2002), cert. den. 537 U.S. 825 (Oct. 7, 2002). 2025 NOTE: Reference to the “Legislature” replaced with I Liheslatura pursuant to 2 GCA § 1101. 1985 SOURCE: California CCP § 170.8; modified.
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1985 COMMENT: Recently, due to vacancies occurring on the bench and temporary absences of other judges, and the disqualification of all judges in one case, several judges pro tempore have been appointed despite the lack of any law authorizing the process. P.L. 12-85 gave the power of such appointment to the Chief Justice, but there has been no Chief Justice, and no amendment to the law, since then. It seems best to place the procedure and requirement for the appointment of judges pro tempore in law so that, when the requirement occurs, persons will be available. In addition to the California section, this Section provides a method whereby a list of qualified persons can be maintained so that they can be immediately appointed for duty. The whole purpose of judges “pro tem” is that they be available when no regular judge can serve, either because the regular judge is disqualified or because there is an overload in the cases, as when several judges are off-island at one time. Subsection (c) gives the judges “pro tem” not more than the salary of a regular judge during the time they serve.