Court Opinion

ID: 9671261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:33:43.670127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:09.050283
License: Public Domain

DORSEY, Justice,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority that mandamus should conditionally issue. If Judge Blackmon abused his discretion by failing to recuse Judge Bennett, mandamus is not an appropriate remedy because there is an adequate remedy by the appeal of the decision after trial. Judge Blackmon could not have abused his discretion by failing to disqualify Judge Bennett, because no basis for disqualification had been presented to him by motion or established by evidence for him to rule sua sponte. Accordingly I respectfully dissent.
Mandamus will issue only to correct a clear abuse of discretion or violation of a duty imposed by law when that abuse cannot be remedied by appeal. Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 840 (Tex.1992). Recusal and disqualification are not synonymous and constitute different attacks on the ability of a judge to sit and hear a case.
I. Disqualification
The more fundamental is disqualification, for if a judge is disqualified from sitting in a case he is without jurisdiction to rule. Any order or judgment by a disqualified judge is void, without effect, and subject to collateral attack. See Buckholts Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Glaser, 632 S.W.2d 146, 148 (Tex.1982). The Texas Constitution provides in Article V, Section 11: “No judge shall sit in any case wherein he may be interested, or where either of the parties may be connected with him, either by affinity or consanguinity, within such a degree as may be prescribed by law, or when he shall have been counsel in the case.” Tex. Const, art. V, § 11.
Only the first basis for constitutional disqualification is argued here, that Judge Bennett is “interested” in the case. However, the interest spoken of in the constitution is a direct pecuniary or property interest in the subject matter of the litigation that would result in a pecuniary gain or loss to the judge as an immediate result of the judgment. Cameron v. Greenhill, 582 S.W.2d 775, 776 (Tex.1979). There has been no allegation or evidence of a financial interest by Judge Bennett; rather, the petitioner complains of Judge Bennett’s voluntary and deliberate participation in the recusal hearings.
It has long been the law in Texas that a judge is disqualified from hearing any case in which he has an interest. Love v. Wilcox, 119 Tex. 256, 28 S.W.2d 515, 518 (Tex.1930) (“Every Constitution of Texas since that of 1845 has forbidden a judge to sit in any case wherein he is interested.”). In Love, the supreme court noted that
So often has this phrase, “case wherein he is interested,” been interpreted that its meaning no longer admits of reasonable doubt.... In Texas, our constitutional prohibition has been uniformly construed *539as requiring the judge to sit who is interested in the question to be decided but who has no direct and immediate interest in the judgment to be pronounced.
Id. That “direct and immediate interest” which constitutionally disqualifies a judge is the interest which stems from the possibility that the judge will enjoy some personal benefit or suffer some personal loss by the judgment to be rendered. Id. “The judge must, by the judgment in the case, gain or lose something, the value of which may be estimated.” King v. Sapp, 66 Tex. 519, 2 S.W. 573, 574 (1886); see also Moody v. City of University Park, 278 S.W.2d 912, 919 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1955, writ ref'd n.r.e.); 47 Tex. Jur. 3d Judges § 31 (1986). If a judge’s interest in the case is indirect, uncertain, or remote, and the result of the suit will not necessarily subject him to a personal gain or loss, he is not disqualified to sit in the case. Hidalgo County Water Imp. Dist. No. 2 v. Blalock, 157 Tex. 206, 301 S.W.2d 593, 596-97 (1957) (citing Love, 119 Tex. 256, 28 S.W.2d 515; City of Oak Cliff v. State, 97 Tex. 391, 79 S.W. 1068 (1904)).
“The interest that disqualifies a judge does not signify every bias, partiality, or prejudice that may be included in the broadest sense of the word ‘interest,’ as contra distinguished from its use as implicating a pecuniary or personal right or privilege in some way dependent on the result of the ease.” 47 Tex. JuR. 3d Judges § 31 (1986) (citing McInnes v. Wallace, 44 S.W. 537 (Tex.Civ.App.1898, no writ)). The fact that a judge may be biased or prejudiced, standing alone, does not disqualify him under the Texas Constitution. Merchants’ Nat'l Bank v. Cross, 283 S.W. 555, 557 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1926, no writ).
Nothing about Judge Blackmon’s decision either benefitted or harmed Judge Bennett in any personal way. Judge Blackmon’s decision determined whether or not Judge Bennett would preside over the underlying lawsuit, but it did not mean that Judge Bennett would personally gain or lose anything of estimable value, and therefore did not implicate constitutional disqualification.
If we hold that Judge Bennett’s active voluntary participation in the recusal hearing created an “interest” in the case so as to disqualify him under the constitution, we greatly expand the definition of “interest” of Art. V, Section 11. In our jurisprudence an interest that would require disqualification has always been held to be something of value that can be estimated, i.e., a property interest. Curiosity or concern about the correctness of a ruling does not equate to an interest that has a monetary value. See, e.g., Galveston & H. Inv. Co. v. Grymes, 94 Tex. 609, 64 S.W. 778, 778 (1901) (opinion on reh’g) (supreme court justice not disqualified simply because he participated in prior decision at intermediate appellate court level); Grigsby v. May, 84 Tex. 240, 19 S.W. 343, 350 (1892); River Rd. Neighborhood Assoc. v. South Texas Sports, Inc., 673 S.W.2d 952, 953 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1984) (two associate justices not disqualified for having received campaign contributions from persons associated with appellee); Rocha v. Ahmad, 662 S.W.2d 77, 78-79 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1983, no writ) (justices of court of appeals not disqualified from sitting on case in which lawyer who had contributed to their campaign was involved as counsel); Niles v. Dean, 363 S.W.2d 317, 320-21 (Tex.Civ.App.—Beaumont 1962, no writ) (judge not disqualified when his son was attorney for plaintiff but not a party himself); Wagner v. State, 217 S.W.2d 463, 464-66 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1948, writ ref'd n.r.e.) (judge who owned land in proposed junior college district not disqualified to preside over quo warranto action challenging propriety of district); But see Indemnity Ins. Co. of N. Am. v. McGee, 163 Tex. 412, 356 S.W.2d 666, 668-69 (1962) (attorney in workers’ compensation case was a party to the case, and therefore the trial judge, who was the attorney’s cousin, was disqualified); Pennington v. State, 169 Tex.Crim. 183, 332 S.W.2d 569, 570 (Tex.Crim.App.1960) (judge disqualified when he was formerly the district attorney and actively participated in convicting appellant of crimes being used as enhancements in punishment phase of new trial).
The majority cites Blanchard v. Krueger, 916 S.W.2d 15, 19 (Tex.App.— Houston [1st Dist.] 1995, orig. proceeding) for authority *540that a judge who participates in his own recusal hearing becomes interested in the outcome and is therefore disqualified. However, in Blanchard, Judge James Blaekstoek, the judge that the parties were seeking to recuse, filed a pleading and intervened as a party in the action to recuse him and sought attorneys fees as damages in contesting the recusal action. Id. at 17. The intervention and seeking of damages gave Judge Black-stock a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the proceedings and resulted in his disqualification. Id. at 18-19. No such intervention by pleading for affirmative relief was done by Judge Bennett. There is no evidence of his pecuniary or property interest to trigger his disqualification.
The issue whether Judge Bennett was constitutionally disqualified was not before Judge Blackmon. Mandamus should not issue to require him to rule on a matter he has not addressed. The motion to recuse was filed September 23 based on Judge Bennett’s relationship with the law firm of Hunt, Her-mansen, McKibben & English. Judge Black-mon was appointed to hear the matter by the presiding judge of the administrative region, Judge Darrell Hester. Judge Blackmon heard the matter and ruled on November 5, reheard it and ruled again on November 18. On December 9 petitioners filed an amendment to their motion to recuse, urging for the first time the personal interest of Judge Bennett in the outcome of the hearings as a ground for disqualification. Judge Blackmon declined to hear the amendment because he had already ruled on the motion to recuse, the matter on which he was appointed. Consequently, Judge Blackmon did not rule on the issue of disqualification. Though mandamus would ordinarily he available to review the overruling of a motion to disqualify, the present ground for disqualification was not before Judge Blackmon at the time he heard and determined the present motion to recuse.
The Monroes contend that their ground for disqualification should have been considered by Judge Blackmon as a “trial amendment.” In Blanchard, the court of appeals held it an abuse of discretion for the assigned judge to deny a “trial amendment” filed at the conclusion of the hearing on motion to recuse and adding a ground that had been asserted without objection at that hearing. Id. at 17-18. However, a motion to disqualify or recuse may not be amended in this manner to include grounds which were not raised before the assigned judge denied the original motion. See Manges v. Martinez, 683 S.W.2d 137, 139 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1984, orig. proceeding). In the present case, the Mon-roes filed their “trial amendment” almost a month after the second hearing and Judge Blackmon’s denial of the original motion to recuse. I cannot hold that Judge Blackmon abused his discretion in failing to grant a motion to disqualify that was never referred to him for determination or presented to him at the hearing on motion to recuse.
II. Recusal
Mandamus may be appropriate to review the decision of an assigned judge not to disqualify the trial judge. See Blanchard, 916 S.W.2d at 19. Because constitutional disqualification of a judge renders void any of his orders involving judicial discretion, it leaves no adequate remedy by appeal from an incorrect determination not to disqualify the judge. Id.; see also Packer, 827 S.W.2d at 840-42.
However, an assigned judge’s erroneous denial of a motion to recuse may be reviewed on appeal. Rule of Civil Procedure 18a(f) provides that, “[i]f the motion [to recuse] is denied, it may be reviewed for abuse of discretion on appeal from the final judgment.” Tex.R. Civ. P. 18a(f); see Thomas v. Walker, 860 S.W.2d 679, 581 (Tex.App.-Waco 1993, orig. proceeding). The general presumption is that remedy by appeal is adequate absent extraordinary circumstances. I see no such circumstances in this case to distinguish it from any other failure to re-cuse. Therefore, even if Judge Blackmon abused his discretion in failing to recuse Judge Bennett, mandamus is not an appropriate remedy to correct the error.1
*541The majority holds that although appeal may be had from a refusal to recuse, the appeal is not an adequate remedy under the circumstances, thus calling for the extraordinary writ of mandamus. In order to determine whether the remedy by appeal is adequate or not, it is instructive to examine the stringent tests established by the Texas Supreme Court in Canadian Helicopters, Ltd. v. Wittig, in which mandamus was sought to review the denial of a special appearance. 876 S.W.2d 804, 306-10 (Tex.1994). Although the supreme court recognized that the personal jurisdiction over petitioner was suspect, and that the trial would be a wasted and expensive exercise, it held that an appeal was an adequate remedy and refused to grant the writ. Id. It held that absence of personal jurisdiction, like questioned subject matter jurisdiction, can be remedied by appeal so that mandamus will not lie. Id; see Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. v. Walker, 787 S.W.2d 954, 955 (Tex.1990).
If the appellate remedy is adequate when the jurisdiction of the court over the case or over the party is in doubt, it is certainly adequate when a judge’s biases are challenged. If there is an absence of personal or subject matter jurisdiction, the trial is for naught, with the attendant waste of money and personal resources that were invested in the useless trial. However, a judge’s biases are manifested by the legal and factual rulings made. A review of those rulings is what is done in an ordinary appeal. I do not see why an appeal would be an inadequate remedy-
Because one of the requirements for the issuance of the writ of mandamus has not been met — the absence of an adequate remedy by appeal — the writ should not issue and the majority errs in so doing.
I respectfully dissent.
SEERDEN, C.J., and FEDERICO G. HINOJOSA, Jr., J., join in the dissent.

. The only instances in which mandamus has been found to be appropriate to review action on a motion to recuse is where the challenged judge fails to comply with his duty under Rule of Civil Procedure 18a(c) & (d) to either recuse himself or refer the motion. When the motion has not *541been refenred for a hearing to the administrative judge or another judge designated by him, the movant has not had an opportunity to develop a record on his recusal motion, and, without a record, he has no adequate remedy by appeal. Winfield v. Daggett, 846 S.W.2d 920, 922 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1993, orig. proceeding). The failure to refer may be reviewed by mandamus. The other situation is when the assigned judge is objected to by counsel. See Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 74.053 (Vernon Pamph. 1997). If objected to under section 74.053, the judge must step down, or mandamus may issue. Brown v. Mulanax, 808 S.W.2d 718, 720 (Tex.App.—Tyler 1991, orig. proceeding).