Court Opinion

ID: 9861654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:16:22.917262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:47.528253
License: Public Domain

*672LEVINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
I agree with the majority decision but write to memorialize my disagreement with Sargent County Bank v. Wentworth, 500 N.W.2d 862 (N.D.1993), which, in my view, ought to have been analyzed and decided as the majority analyzes and decides this case— that the remedy for the appearance of bias by a judge is not reversal, but “censure, removal, retirement, suspension, or other disciplinary action against the judge.” Rule 21, NDRJC. Only if a judge were actually biased should her decision be reversed. There is no evidence of actual bias in this case.
I concur in all of the opinion except the part that distinguishes Wentworth. I would overrule Wentworth, not distinguish it, to the extent Wentworth requires reversal of a judgment in a trial where “the record shows beyond question that [the judge] fairly tried [the] case.” Wentworth, supra at 880.