Court Opinion

ID: 9642104
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:48:22.950391+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:26:06.148142
License: Public Domain

WARD, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent on the basis that a distinction exists between the old constitutional and statutory grounds for disqualification provided for by Article V, section 11, of the Constitution and Article 15, Tex.Rev. Civ.Stat.Ann., and the new ones of mere bias and prejudice under Canon 3 C of the Code of Judicial Conduct. The existence of the old disqualification could be urged at any time. Normally, those grounds would be known to the trial judge from the beginning and the disruption of an anticipated trial avoided by the judge disqualifying himself. In this case, the motion to disqualify was filed in the motion for new trial. Such a motion, raising bias and prejudice under Canon 3 C for the first time, comes too late for the mandatory action called for by Section 6 of Article 200a, Tex.Rev.Civ. Stat.Ann. This is a reasonable limitation on the language of that statute and does no violence to its meaning. I would overrule the point.