Who appointed Mariana R. Pfaelzer?

President Jimmy Carter appointed Mariana R. Pfaelzer to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 1978.

Was Mariana R. Pfaelzer appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Mariana R. Pfaelzer was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Mariana R. Pfaelzer's confirmation vote?

Mariana R. Pfaelzer was confirmed by voice vote on September 22, 1978. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Central District of California / Appointed 1978 / Served to 2015

Mariana R. Pfaelzer

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and confirmed by voice vote, Mariana R. Pfaelzer was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She earned a law degree from University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law in 1957. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1926–2015
Appointed by: Jimmy Carter, 1978
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: University of California, Santa Barbara 1949 · University of California, Los Angeles, Law 1957
Succeeded: Francis C. Whelan
Succeeded by: Nora Margaret Manella

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1978	Central District of California succeeded Francis C. Whelan	Carter (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara	A.B.	1949
University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law	J.D.	1957

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Pfaelzer was assigned 2,838 district-court cases (1976–2015). Median time from filing to termination: 230 days across 2,837 closed cases.

Contract15%

Prisoner & habeas14%

Intellectual property12%

Personal-injury torts11%

Labor & ERISA10%

Civil rights9%

Other28%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 27 of Pfaelzer’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 24 were affirmed, 2 reversed or vacated, and 1 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Pfaelzer authored 64 published opinions for the court (1980–2011). Most cited: Hokama v. EF Hutton & Co., Inc. (78 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1983	Hokama v. EF Hutton & Co., Inc.	566 F. Supp. 636	78
1984	Meta-Film Associates, Inc. v. MCA, Inc.	586 F. Supp. 1346	74
2008	In Re Countrywide Financial Corporation Securities Litigation	588 F. Supp. 2d 1132	64
1980	Eversole v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., Inc.	500 F. Supp. 1162	61
1994	United States v. Real Property Located at 6625 Zumirez Drive	845 F. Supp. 725	57
1991	Masuda v. Thomas Richards & Co.	759 F. Supp. 1456	54
1987	Mt. Hawley Insurance v. Federal Savings & Loan Insurance	695 F. Supp. 469	53
2009	United Guaranty Mortgage Indemnity Co. v. Countrywide Financial Corp.	660 F. Supp. 2d 1163	36
2011	Allstate Insurance v. Countrywide Financial Corp.	824 F. Supp. 2d 1164	34
1983	California Ass'n of Bioanalysts v. Rank	577 F. Supp. 1342	30
1987	Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Carter	701 F. Supp. 730	29
2008	In Re Countrywide Financial Corp. Derivative Litigation	554 F. Supp. 2d 1044	28
2008	In Re Countrywide Financial Corp. Derivative Litigation	542 F. Supp. 2d 1160	27
1993	Parfums Givenchy, Inc. v. C & C Beauty Sales, Inc.	832 F. Supp. 1378	27
1989	United States Ex Rel. Truong v. Northrop Corp.	728 F. Supp. 615	26

Showing the 15 most-cited of 64 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Mariana R. Pfaelzer?: President Jimmy Carter appointed Mariana R. Pfaelzer to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in 1978.
Was Mariana R. Pfaelzer appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Mariana R. Pfaelzer was appointed by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Mariana R. Pfaelzer's confirmation vote?: Mariana R. Pfaelzer was confirmed by voice vote on September 22, 1978. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was Mariana R. Pfaelzer on?: Mariana R. Pfaelzer was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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36 years on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).