DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA

FOURTH DISTRICT

DEBRA PERROTTO, as Personal Representative of the ESTATE OF 

NICHOLAS PERROTTO,

Petitioner,

v.

R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY, PHILIP MORRIS USA INC., 

LORILLARD TOBACCO COMPANY, LIGGETT GROUP LLC, and

VECTOR GROUP LTD., INC.,

Respondents.

No. 4D14-4943

[July 15, 2015]

Petition for writ of prohibition to the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth 

Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County; Meenu Sasser, Judge; L.T. Case No. 

502007CA023841 XXXXMB.

Bard D. Rockenbach of Burlington & Rockenbach, P.A., West Palm 

Beach, and Scott P. Schlesinger and Jonathan R. Gdanski of Schlesinger 

Law Offices, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, for petitioner.

Joseph H. Lang, Jr., of Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, P.A., Tampa, for

respondent Philip Morris USA Inc. (and filing on behalf of R.J. Reynolds 

Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. for Response only).

Karen H. Curtis of Clarke Silverglate, P.A., Miami, for respondent 

Liggett Group LLC.

PER CURIAM.

Petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition to review the denial of her motion 

to disqualify the trial judge. This is an Engle-progeny1 case with the basis 

for the motion to disqualify arising after the trial and verdict. We grant 

the petition. Petitioner has demonstrated that she has an objectively 

reasonable basis to fear that she will not receive fair review of the pending 

post-trial motions. 

1 Engle v. Liggett Grp., Inc., 945 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 2006).
2

In 4D13-4058, we denied petitioner’s pretrial petition wherein she 

challenged the judge’s first order denying a motion to disqualify in this 

case. The initial motion was based on alleged hostility between the judge 

and one of petitioner’s attorneys. The alleged hostility arose in an 

unrelated Engle case wherein the judge issued a fifteen-page order 

granting a motion for new trial based largely on counsel’s courtroom 

behavior.2

Within that order the judge detailed the attorney’s conduct 

characterizing it as misleading and a fraud on the court. The hostility 

between the two carried over into proceedings concerning the judge’s 

nomination for appointment to the federal bench. The judge furnished the 

nominating committee a copy of the order as a writing sample. Thereafter, 

the attorney sent the committee a letter challenging the facts contained in 

the order and questioning the judge’s suitability for appointment to the 

federal bench. Following the judge’s unsuccessful nomination, petitioner 

and other Engle plaintiffs represented by the attorney and his firm moved 

to disqualify the judge. The judge denied the motion, and we denied the 

prior prohibition petition.

The case proceeded to trial, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of 

petitioner. The attorney at issue did not personally represent petitioner in 

the trial, but rather selected other members of the firm to do so. Counsel 

alleged in the instant motion that this was tactical to minimize the impact 

of any hostility between him and the judge affecting the client.

The events surrounding this second motion arose after the attorney was 

present in the courtroom to observe a portion of a firm member’s closing 

arguments and after the jury returned its verdict. According to petitioner, 

she and her trial counsel approached the bench to thank the judge. 

Petitioner alleges that as the two were walking away from the bench, the 

judge commented that she had seen the attorney in the courtroom and 

that she would “never forgive him for what he did to me.” Petitioner alleged 

that it appeared to her that the judge was “highly emotional and on the 

verge of tears as she said this.” 

Petitioner alleged that while she was previously aware of the issues 

between the judge and her attorney, she did not appreciate “the depth of 

the hostility or how deeply hurt the judge was by [counsel’s] active 

opposition to her quest for a federal judgeship.” Petitioner’s trial attorney, 

who was present at the bench with petitioner, furnished an affidavit 

echoing petitioner’s representation of the judge’s comments and adding 

2 That ruling is the subject of a pending appeal in case number 4D13-2681.
3

that the judge said she “will never forget what he did. I will never forgive 

him and I took it personally. It was very hurtful and it made me cry.” 

Counsel added that the judge told him that he could communicate that 

sentiment to the attorney. 

Generally, a trial judge’s expression of dissatisfaction with counsel or a 

party’s behavior does not warrant disqualification. See Ellis v. Henning, 

678 So. 2d 825, 827 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996). Also, it is assumed that a judge 

will not be biased as a result of an attorney’s opposition to the judge’s 

application for office. See McDermott v. Grossman, 429 So. 2d 393, 393

(Fla. 3d DCA 1983). Here, the judge’s comments, as alleged by petitioner 

and her trial attorney in their sworn affidavits, rebut any assumption of 

non-prejudice. Id. at 394.

Accepting the allegations within the motion and affidavits as true, we 

conclude that the judge’s alleged inability to restrain either her utterances 

or her emotions in front of the petitioner would, if true, show that the 

experience profoundly affected her and made her future impartiality 

reasonably suspect. The source of this prejudice is personal and unrelated 

to petitioner’s case and trial counsel’s conduct therein. See, e.g.,

Lamendola v. Grossman, 439 So. 2d 960 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). Though we 

previously concluded that any hostility arising from the events of the 

judicial nominating process did not warrant disqualification, the judge 

allegedly opened the door and displayed the depth of such hostility by 

failing to remain silent despite the passage of time. 

Based on the foregoing, we conclude that a reasonably prudent person 

would be in fear of not receiving fair and impartial judicial review of the 

pending matters. See Livingston v. State, 441 So. 2d 1083, 1087 (Fla. 

1983) (recognizing that the focus must be on whether “the facts alleged 

would place a reasonably prudent person in fear of not receiving a fair and 

impartial trial”). Consequently, the petition for writ of prohibition is 

granted.

Petition granted.

STEVENSON, TAYLOR and CONNER, JJ., concur.

* * *

Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.