By Daniel Wiessner and Jessica Dye

Nov 7 (Reuters) - Three Republican judges who sit on New York state appeals courts were defeated in judicial elections, including Justice James Catterson, who sits on the influential Appellate Division, First Department.

Justices Michael Kavanagh and Bernard Malone, who sit on the Appellate Division, Third Department, also lost to Democratic challengers, according to unofficial results.

The losses were part of a dominant Democratic performance in judicial elections Tuesday, with some 30 seats on the Supreme Court, which includes the Appellate Division, up for grabs along with a number of local judicial positions.

It will be up to Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, to name replacements for the appeals court vacancies created by the election. Cuomo will make the appointments from among the judges on the Supreme Court.

Catterson, 54, finished eighth among 12 candidates vying for six seats in Long Island, according to preliminary results. He did not immediately return a call for comment on Thursday.

A former deputy county attorney in Suffolk County, he was appointed to the First Department in 2004 by former governor George Pataki after six years in state Supreme Court.

Among his notable decisions: the 2009 majority opinion in Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corp, in which he condemned the state for using eminent domain to give land to Columbia University but concluded the court could not prevent it; and a dissent earlier this year in Matter of Jaquan, in which he defended the New York City Police Department's right to stop and frisk a juvenile who was spotted taking an object from his waistband.

Kavanagh, 69, was the district attorney in Ulster County for 20 years prior to being elected to the state judiciary. He was appointed to the Appellate Division in 2008 by former governor Eliot Spitzer.

Malone, also 69, is a former Albany County assistant district attorney and assistant U.S. attorney. He was appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department, in 2005 by Pataki; Spitzer appointed him to the Third Department in 2008.

Malone and Kavanagh did not return calls left with the Third Department.

The First Department includes Manhattan and the Bronx. The Third Department covers a large area of the state from Albany to the Adirondacks and west to Binghamton.

In other top races (all results are unofficial):

FIRST DEPARTMENT (Manhattan and the Bronx)

* In the Bronx, Civil Court Judge Nelida Malave-Gonzalez, a Democrat, and Frances O'Leary, a Republican and retired attorney, are vying to replace Surrogate Lee Holzman. Results were not available on Wednesday afternoon.

Holzman, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, is facing misconduct charges brought by the state judicial conduct commission for allegedly failing to fire a lawyer in his court who billed thousands of dollars in advance fees before performing any work. Holzman has denied any wrongdoing.

* In Manhattan, Acting Supreme Court Justices Shlomo Hagler, Manuel Mendez, Saliann Scarpulla and George Silver all won 14-year terms on the Supreme Court. The four Democrats ran unopposed.

SECOND DEPARTMENT (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and five other counties)

* In Long Island, where Catterson lost, Democrats won five of six seats. Second Department Justice Peter Skelos was the lone Republican. The other winners were Justice Leonard Austin, former Suffolk County Court judge Richard Ambro, Nassau County District Court Judge Sondra Pardes and attorneys John Leo and Leonard Steinman.

* Democrats also won all three Supreme Court seats that were on the ballot in the 9th Judicial District, which includes Westchester County and other northern suburbs of New York City. Republican Supreme Court Justice John LaCava was ousted after being topped by Acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald Loehr and attorneys Maria Rosa and Sandra Sciortino.

* Results in contested Supreme Court races in Brooklyn and Queens were not immediately available.

THIRD DEPARTMENT (Albany, Saratoga, Binghamton and several counties)

* Kavanagh and Malone were defeated by attorneys Stephan Schick and Richard Mott, both of whom are Democrats. Mott, 63, is in private practice in Kindherhook, Columbia County, which is south of Albany, and was an assistant public defender in Columbia County from 1982 to 1987. Schick, 59, of Sullivan County, is a defense attorney and the executive director of the Sullivan Legal Aid Panel. In an interview Wednesday, Schick said he believed residents of his home county wanted to elect a judge from their turf. Sullivan County, which borders Pennsylvania, has not had an elected Supreme Court justice in a decade, Schick said, leading court administrators to send in judges from as far away as Queens.

* Montgomery Supreme Court Justice Joseph Sise, a Republican, was the top vote getter in the 4th Judicial District, which covers Saratoga and 10 other counties and had four Supreme Court seats on the ballot. Acting Supreme Court Justices Felix Catena and Christine Clark and attorney Thomas Buchanan won the remaining three seats. Catena and Buchanan are Republicans and Clark is a Democrat.

FOURTH DEPARTMENT (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and several counties)

* In the 7th Judicial District, which includes Monroe County, where Rochester is located, Acting Supreme Court Justice Gail Donofrio, a Republican, and Acting Rochester City Court Judge Scott Odorisi, a Democrat, won the two Supreme Court seats up for grabs. Republican Supreme Court Justice David Michael Barry lost his seat, coming in last in the four-way race.

* Chenango County Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dowd, a Republican, won a second term on the bench after running unopposed in the 6th Judicial District.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax)

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