Court Opinion

ID: 9639651
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:42:51.769227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:51.701967
License: Public Domain

Robert L. Brown, Justice, dissenting. This case highlights the issue of whether a trial judge should disqualify from hearing a matter when the trial judge is in an ongoing business relationship with one of the attorneys appearing before him. Here, that business relationship was one of landlord/tenant as shown by a real estate tax record attached to the Blacks’ reply to Van Steenwyk’s response to the motion to disqualify. I believe the trial judge should have disclosed his business relationship with opposing counsel, and, because the landlord relationship with counsel apparently existed, he should have disqualified. Moreover, I believe that moving counsel was entitled to a prompt decision on his motion suggesting that the trial judge recuse, and that that was denied him. The Blacks’ motion to recuse was filed on June 5, 1996. The trial judge’s letter opinion was dated December 26, 1996. No discussion of the issue was included in the trial judge’s letter opinion, much less any admission that the trial judge was opposing counsel’s landlord. The trial judge simply said: “Having previously concluded that there is no reason requiring me to recuse in the matter which has previously been tried, I now must make the distasteful decision regarding Mrs. Van Steenwyk’s ingress and egress to her property.” The record does not reflect that the trial judge previously made public his conclusion on disqualification in any written form or by ruling. Certainly, no order to that effect is included in the record. Thus, the motion was denied almost 7 months after the request to disqualify was made by passing reference in a letter opinion issued by the trial judge in which he disposed of the merits of the case. The Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct requires that a judge disqualify in any proceeding where his or her impartiality might reasonably be questioned. Ark. Code Jud. Conduct, Canon 3E(1). The Commentary to that Section reads: A judge should disclose on the record information that the judge believes the parties or their lawyers might consider relevant to the question of disqualification, even if the judge believes there is no real basis for disqualification. Here, that was not done. The Code further mandates that a judge “shall not engage in financial and business dealings that: . . . (b) involve the judge in frequent transactions or continuing business relationships with those lawyers or other persons likely to come before the court on which the judge serves.” Ark. Code Jud. Conduct 4D(1)(b). The Code, in addition, requires that the judge’s financial interests that might cause frequent disqualification should be divested. Ark. Code Jud. Conduct 4D(4). One treatise on judicial conduct makes the point succinctly: “Similarly, a judge must disqualify himself or herself when he or she has a business relationship with an attorney appearing before the court.” Shaman, Lubet & Alfini, Judicial Conduct and Ethics, (2nd ed. 1995) § 4.19, p. 135. Two advisory opinions have issued from the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee on whether the judges requesting advice should disqualify when those judges have a landlord/tenant relationship with one of the attorneys appearing before them.1 In both instances, the Ethics Advisory Committee answered “yes.” See Advisory Opinion #97-03 requested by Hon. Charles A. Yeargan (May 6, 1997); Advisory Opinion #97-05 requested by Hon. Lance Hanshaw (January 5, 1998). In each opinion, the Ethics Advisory Committee concluded that the judge should either recuse or, alternatively, ask the parties and their lawyers whether they wish to waive the judge’s disqualification under Canon 3F. Though those advisory opinions are not binding on this court, they illustrate the serious perception problem by any reasonable person when a lawyer who has ongoing business dealings with the trial judge argues a case before that same judge. The majority opinion effectively guts those advisory opinions and places an interpretive gloss on the Code of Judicial Conduct without even discussing the two Canons involved or the advisory opinions themselves. Under these facts, the trial judge should have advised opposing counsel of the landlord/tenant relationship and disqualified, subject to the parties and attorneys waiving disqualification under Canon 3F. The majority opinion is further delinquent in never really coming to grips with and discussing the ongoing landlord relationship itself between the trial judge and counsel as a basis for disqualification. Rather, the majority hangs its decision on the Blacks’ failure to request a hearing on their motion to recuse and the absence of proof of bias in the record. The Blacks presented the trial judge with a real estate tax record, and the trial judge certainly knew the status of the landlord/tenant relationship. Having this matter turn on whether the Blacks asked for a hearing seems to be an unnecessary technicality under these circumstances. With regard to proof of bias, the Michigan Court of Appeals has held that actual bias need not be shown when the judge had a joint-ownership interest in land on which the main office of the law firm of one of the trial attorneys was located. See In Re Disqualification of Fiftieth District Court Judge, 483 N.W.2d 276 (Mich. App. 1992). I question whether proof that the trial judge was actually biased is required in a case where the judge is doing business with one of the trial attorneys. Moreover, the trial judge should have made the recusal decision expeditiously and not delayed the matter for 7 months. It is axiomatic that recusal decisions should be acted on promptly. See 48A C.J.S. Judges, § 145, p. 842. Indeed, some jurisdictions provide that so long as the issue of disqualification remains undecided, the judge is without jurisdiction to hear any matter affecting the substantive rights of the parties. People v. Bell, 658 N.E.2d 1372 (Il. App. Ct. 1995); Greenberg, Benson, Fisk and Fielder, P.C. v. Howell, 685 S.W.2d 695 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984); Johnson v. The District Court, 674 P.2d 952 (Colo. 1984). Here, though, there is nothing in the record to show that he made an earlier ruling or advised moving counsel of his prior decision. This is all made especially troublesome because the Van Steenwyk’s counsel, who was the judge’s tenant, initially responded to the Blacks’ motion for recusal by denying the paragraph of the motion where the landlord/tenant relationship was asserted. The Blacks replied with the tax record showing that the trial judge owned the building where the trial attorney had his office. In the Van Steenwyk’s brief in this appeal, she states that the landlord/tenant relationship between the trial judge and counsel was admitted. However, no such admission appears in the record. Indeed, no where is the relationship defined by the trial counsel or the trial judge or explained in either the trial judge’s letter opinion, his judgment, or in any other document in the record. Van Steenwyk also contends in her brief that the Blacks should have obtained a ruling on their motion to recuse. The Blacks’ counsel responds that he tried. And, again, this was a matter for the trial judge’s prompt consideration and decision. These issues go to the heart of the perception of judicial independence and impartiality. The decision in this case should not turn on whether the Blacks’ attorney requested a hearing on the recusal motion. It should turn on the merits of whether the trial judge abused his discretion (1) in refusing to disclose a landlord/ tenant relationship with counsel or even to discuss whether it existed after the motion to recuse was filed, (2) in refusing to disqualify due to his ongoing landlord relationship with trial counsel under the Code of Judicial Conduct or, alternatively, in failing to obtain a waiver from counsel and their clients, and (3) in not considering the recusal motion and promptly disposing of it, giving reasons for his decision. I conclude that for all these reasons there was an abuse of discretion by the trial judge in this case. I respectfully dissent. Newbern and Imber, JJ., join.   The Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee was established by procedural rule adopted by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission pursuant to Section 5 of Act 791 of 1991.