Stanley Parness, a former presiding justice of the Appellate Term, First Department, died unexpectedly on July 8. He was 85.

Parness, who was admitted to the New York bar in 1955, worked for the court system for more than two decades, first as a law clerk Supreme Court Justice Hyman Korn. Parness was later elected to the Civil Court of the City of New York. He served 18 years on as a justice of the Appellate Term, the last four as its presiding justice, and retired in 2001.