Court Opinion

ID: 9581296
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:13:26.060867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:50.200954
License: Public Domain

Banke, Judge,
concurring specially.
The basis of the appellant’s contempt citation was evidently his refusal to proceed with the trial of the case following the denial of his motion for continuance. I concur in the reversal of the trial court’s judgment only because, on the record before us, it is unclear that this is in fact what the appellant did or what he intended to do. In view of the high degree of confusion surrounding the case and particularly in view of the fact that the appellant was misled as to which case would be tried first, his statement, "Judge, I just can’t carry on this case,” may simply have been an expression of exasperation rather than a refusal to proceed. Had the trial court asked the appellant at this point whether he was refusing to proceed and had the appellant responded affirmatively, then, in my opinion, a *89citation for contempt would not only have been authorized, it would have been absolutely necessary in order to protect the court’s inherent power to conduct the proceedings properly before it.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge McMurray joins me in this special concurrence.