-Hon. Robert A Mark
-Hon. Laurel M. Isicoff
Judge A. Jay Cristol passed away on October 21 2024 only three weeks after he celebrated his 95 th birthday. There is an expression that when looking at the dates of birth and death – with the “life” represented by a dash in between the years, one should consider “the dash”. Judge Cristol’s “dash” was remarkable.
Much has been written about Judge Cristol, including several well- deserved tributes written when Judge Cristol retired on January 13, 2023, after 37 years of dedicated service to our court. We will only touch on his accomplishments here, but we encourage you to learn more about this incredible human being. An extensive article about Judge Cristol was published in the Courthouse Beacon – the quarterly publication of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. You can access the article at www.flsb.uscourts.gov, under the tab for the December 2022 edition. Prior to his retirement, the authors spent several hours with Judge Cristol recording his oral history. You can find that oral history, including a transcript, at the National Bankruptcy Archives, housed at the University of Pennsylvania Biddle Law Library at law.upenn.edu.
Judge Cristol spent his entire adult life, up until his retirement at 93, in public service – combining his love of flying, his passion for learning, and his practical and well-informed legal knowledge and skills. Judge Cristol first started flying when he was just 15 years old. In 1951, he joined the United States Navy as an aviation cadet, earning his Navy Wings of Gold in 1953.Judge Cristol was deployed on an anti-submarine squadron aboard an aircraft carrier during the Korean conflict. In fact, Judge Cristol had a movie showing him landing one of his fighter jets on a carrier. After returning to civilian life, he joined the Naval Air Reserve and in the 1960s he flew operational flights during the Cuban Missile Crisis and volunteer airlift missions to Vietnam. Judge Cristol was a pilot for Eastern Airlines, and continued flying solo into his early 80s and, with a co-pilot into his 90s.
Always a public servant, Judge Cristol flew air ambulances, transporting the elderly and very ill to hospitals around Florida. He was always flying his friends in his airplanes. Judge Isicoff always politely declined the invitation due to her fear of flying in small planes. Judge Mark had the pleasure of flying with him, including a visit to the Piper Aircraft facility in Vero Beach after Piper’s chapter 11 plan was confirmed in 1994. Judge Cristol’s chambers were filled with miniature airplanes, which covered shelves and hung from the ceiling. And Judge Cristol LOVED a good airline case. Judge Isicoff had the pleasure of appearing before Judge Cristol in the Pan Am bankruptcy of 1998 (Pan Am #2). As Judge Isicoff previously recounted, she was regularly grilled by Judge Cristol at every hearing about airplanes and airplane engines – sometimes guessing the answer, but also learning a bit in the process (was it fear?). The Pan Am trademark was successfully sold, and the buyers named their first Pan Am airplane the “Clipper A. Jay Cristol”. Judge Cristol was also a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida and a founding member of the Wings Over Miami Air Museum in Miami, Florida.
Judge Cristol’ scholarship is also well known. Despite his heavy caseload and other judicial and non-judicial activities, Judge Cristol found the time to earn a Ph.D. at the University of Miami and to research and write a book as his dissertation, “the Liberty Incident”, published in 2002. But Judge Cristol didn’t stop there. Once certain previously classified information was made available to him, Judge Cristol revised the book, publishing in 2013 “The Liberty Incident Revealed”, acclaimed as the complete and final story of the Israeli Airforce attack on the U.S.S. Liberty during the six-day war in 1967.
Judge Cristol’s bankruptcy scholarship is also well known; an enjoyable part of that scholarship are Judge Cristol’s rhyming opinions, for which he is famous. Enjoy these opening paragraphs from In re Riddle, 344 B.R. 702 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2006) expressing bewilderment at what to do about the automatic dismissal provision Congress added to the Bankruptcy Code in 2005:
I do not like dismissal automatic,
It seems to me to be traumatic.
I do not like it in this case,
I do not like it any place.
As a judge I am most keen,
To understand, What does it mean?
How can any person know?
What the docket does not show?
And consider these poetic excerpts from an opinion allowing a late-
filed claim in In re E.S. Bankest L.C., 321 B.R. 588 Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2005):
T’was the weekend before Christmas,
All minds were on the season;
T’was the last day to file a claim,
And that was the reason.
That Hutton told Thompson
To file it today.
But filed it was not,
In the Court t’was not there;
Yes, indeed it had vanished,
Perhaps into thin air.
Did the courier take it,
Or some other staff member?
Oh, where did it go
On that day in December?
All the testimony showed
Excusable neglect,
So the claim is deemed timely,
That’s Pioneer’s effect.
All of this would be enough of a legacy for one man. But Judge Cristol’s true legacy to justice was his commitment to the cause of pro bono. Judge Cristol was passionate about pro bono and pro bono service. Judge Cristol exhorted all bankruptcy attorneys to include pro bono service as a regular part of their practice, and he frequently spoke at seminars on bankruptcy and pro bono service. Judge Cristol was instrumental in getting a bankruptcy pro bono clinic established at the University of Miami School of Law, and, to ensure its success in perpetuity, he created a permanent endowment to what is now known as “The Eleanor R. Cristol and Judge A. Jay Cristol Bankruptcy Pro Bono Assistance Clinic”.
We will miss our dear friend, mentor, and colleague. But we know that he has left his mark, not only on us, but on everything that he touched.
Truly a remarkable dash.