Opinion ID: 874308
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the District Court Err in Denying the Motion for Disqualification?

Text: After this case was remanded to the district court following the first appeal, Lower filed a motion to disqualify the district judge. In his motion, Lower cited Rule 40(d)(1) of the Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure, which permits the disqualification of a trial judge without cause. Lower's motion did not designate the subsection of the Rule upon which he was relying, but during oral argument on the motion he relied upon subsection (F). That subsection states, After a trial has been held, if a new trial has been ordered by the trial court or by an appellate court, each party may file a motion for disqualification without cause of the presiding judge, within the time limits set forth in subparagraph (B) of this Rule. Lower argued that the district judge would have to grant a new trial in order to make the necessary factual findings on remand, and therefore subsection (F) would permit disqualification of the judge without cause. The district judge took the motion under advisement so that he could review the trial transcript to determine whether he could make the necessary factual findings without taking additional evidence. The judge ultimately decided that he could and denied the motion for disqualification. On appeal, Lower contends that the district court erred in denying the motion for disqualification. Possibly because no new trial was held since the district court did not take any additional evidence, Lower abandons his argument made to the district court that subsection (F) applied to his motion for disqualification. Instead, Lower now argues that the district court should have granted the motion to disqualify pursuant to subsection (A) of Rule 40(d)(1). The motion would not have been timely under subsection (A). [1] Therefore, the district court did not err in denying the motion for disqualification. Jones v. Jones, 117 Idaho 621, 624, 790 P.2d 914, 917 (1990).