Opinion ID: 490538
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Remand to a Magistrate

Text: 64 We note that the petitioners did not assert in the district court, or in the petition here, that our mandate required the district court to do anything more than reconsider the previous ruling in light of the two legal errors which this court found. Indeed, the district court undertook exactly such a reconsideration and so it is not surprising that the petitioners have not urged either a new hearing or new factfinding. We find no basis, therefore, in the petition or in the representations made by petitioners for considering a contention that the district court should have permitted either the creation of a new record or a new opportunity for factfinding by a different magistrate.V. Reassignment 65 Petitioners contend that the case should be reassigned to a different judge because of Judge Sarokin's bias, which, they insist, is demonstrated because: 1) he did not follow our prior mandate; 2) his rulings indicate hostility to the tobacco industry; and 3) he has prejudged critical factual disputes. Each of these bases for suggesting bias lacks merit. 66 As we conclude in Part III above, Judge Sarokin did follow our mandate. Additionally, even if he had not, that alone, despite the petitioners' insistence to the contrary, is not a sufficient basis to remand to a different district court judge. It does not establish bias. In this area, we may take instruction from cases arising under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 144 (1982), and its predecessor, section 21 of the Judicial Code (1911), ch. 231, Sec. 21, 36 Stat. 1087, 1090 (1911). See Berger v. United States, 255 U.S. 22, 31, 41 S.Ct. 230, 232, 65 L.Ed. 481 (1921) (bias or prejudice which can be urged against a judge must be based upon something other than rulings in the case and the disqualification statute was never intended ... to enable a discontented litigant to oust a judge because of adverse rulings); accord Hanger v. United States, 398 F.2d 91, 101 (8th Cir.1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1119, 89 S.Ct. 995, 22 L.Ed.2d 124 (1969). 67 In support of their contention that Judge Sarokin's ruling demonstrates hostility to the tobacco industry, petitioners point to the district court's first decision on the protective order, in which the court entered an order requiring petitioners to file briefs with the magistrate to justify the claim of confidentiality for each document so designated. This, they correctly state, was more relief than Cipollone requested. That order, however, has been rescinded and the district court's modified protective order is in compliance with our mandate. An error of law, corrected by a reviewing court, does not establish bias. 68 Finally, the petitioners accuse Judge Sarokin of prejudging critical fact issues that have not been yet heard. These issues are: (1) whether consumers have been adequately informed of the dangers of smoking; (2) whether smokers are properly viewed as 'victims' of their smoking; and (3) whether cigarettes are addicting. Petitioners' Brief at 46-47. In support, petitioners quote various sentences in 649 F.Supp. 664 (D.N.J.1986), 593 F.Supp. 1146 (D.N.J. 1984) and slip op. (D.N.J. Dec. 7, 1984), which, they say, show that the district court has already decided these issues. See Petitioners' Brief at 47-56. All are taken out of context and exaggerated. They are not worth setting forth here. 69 The petition that we remove Judge Sarokin from the case by exercising our authority under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1651 to protect petitioners from bias is entirely without merit, and a thinly disguised effort at judge shopping.