Court Opinion

ID: 9645033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:11:09.500729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:22.243262
License: Public Domain

DIXON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result of the majority opinion because I am convinced the circuit judge had, prior to his decision, no information concerning the issues in this case arising from his wife’s position as the teacher of the child. Nor does this record reveal that he was even aware of the wife’s possible knowledge before he decided the case. I am convinced that the issue was pretextual on the part of the wife’s counsel to avoid the already-announced determination of the issues by the circuit judge. Thus, my concurrence in result is based upon my belief that these facts demonstrate there was no appearance of impropriety.
I believe that the portion of the majority opinion that discusses disqualification may be misleading to trial judges. I agree that the opportunity to obtain information does not disqualify. I am convinced, however, when such an opportunity exists, the judge has a duty to act.
When a trial judge who is sitting as a fact finder obtains information dehors the record, he must disqualify himself. A judge in the role of a fact finder is no different than a member of the jury. We do not countenance members of the jury obtaining information concerning the issues outside of the trial process, and we should not do so with a judge. When a judge has acquired knowledge of a dispute before the matter comes before him, we should require *162the same disclosure that is required of a member of the jury — revelation of the nature and extent of the prior information. If the trial judge fully and fairly discloses such prior knowledge, the parties may act upon that information as they see fit, subject to the judge’s inherent right to recuse himself.
Courts and judges know what everyone else knows who reads the newspapers and listens to or watches the other media. Such knowledge is presumed and does not pose the problem that privately or personally obtained knowledge presents. But when a judge has private or personal knowledge that might affect his fact finding function, he or she should disclose it to the parties. The obligation is implicit in Rule 2 Canon 3 A(4). It is explicit in Rule 2 Canon 3 C, which in pertinent part reads:
(1) A judge should disqualify himself in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where:
(a) he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;
From this it follows that when the record discloses an opportunity to obtain information that would disqualify the trial judge, the record must also disclose facts that negate any reasonable question concerning the impartiality of the judge. I believe that this record discloses facts that negate that issue, and I thus concur in the result. The fact that the judge was unaware of his wife’s involvement as the teacher of the child until after his decision is the critical fact.
The majority opinion should resolve the dilemma of whether a trial judge should grant a hearing under these circumstances. No guidance exists in the case law for a trial judge in this situation. The record before us could have removed all doubt on the issue if a hearing had been held despite the inadequacy of the wife’s pleaded assertions. Absent controlling precedent from the supreme court on the issue, it is within the power of this court to prescribe a procedure to eliminate future uncertainty. In my view, a trial judge confronted with these facts could and should call upon another circuit judge to hear and rule the matter. Our review would then be a review of that trial court action aided by a full record and the findings of the hearing judge. A trial judge, confronted by a similar issue, obtains no guidance from the majority opinion and may, in fact, be misled by the court’s tacit approval of the circuit court’s refusal to grant a hearing in this case, which inheres in the holding that no error appears.
Nor do I concur in that portion of the majority opinion that, relying on federal authority, asserts such action is discretionary. The federal authority cited in the majority opinion has no binding effect on this court. The persuasiveness of the cited “Skywalk” cases is diminished, not only by the lack of rationale, but also by the failure of the opinion to mention that the issue has been decided differently in another circuit. In Roberts v. Bailar, 625 F.2d 125 (6th Cir.1980), the court, in a well-reasoned opinion, reaches an opposite result. Relying heavily on the federal legislative history, the sixth circuit held that 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) requires that a trial judge must recuse himself when his impartiality is brought into question.
To promote public confidence in the impartiality of the federal judicial system, the Congress in 1974 shifted the focus of § 455. ‘Any ... judge,’ § 455(a) now provides, ‘shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’ No longer is a judge’s introspective estimate of his own ability impartially to hear a case the determinate of disqualification under § 455. The standard now is objective. It asks what a reasonable person knowing all the relevant facts would think about the impartiality of the judge. ‘[I]f there is a reasonable factual basis for doubting the judge’s impartiality,’ the congressional committee reports on the 1974 amendment to § 455 explain, the judge ‘should disqualify himself and *163let another judge preside over the case.’ Even where the question is close, the judge whose impartiality might reasonably be questioned must recuse himself from the trial.
Roberts, 625 F.2d at 129 (footnotes omitted).
Whichever view of the federal case law is correct has no application to construction of Rule 2 Canon 3 C because of significant differences between the language of the Missouri provision and the federal statute. The federal act, 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) and (b), creates by separate sections two categories of disqualification. Chapter 28 U.S.C. § 455(a) contains the less specific language:
(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
Chapter 28 U.S.C. § 455(b) contains the specific grounds upon which disqualification shall occur.
Missouri Rule 2 Canon 3 C is in an entirely different framework. Rule 2 Canon 3 C(l) reads as follows:
(1) A judge should disqualify himself in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where:
(a) he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding; ....
Following subsection (a) are several other circumstances requiring disqualification. Even if disqualification under the general language of Rule 2 Canon 3 C(l) were susceptible of the notion of a determination by judicial discretion, which I do not concede, when the subparagraphs are considered, such construction is not justified. These lettered subparagraphs are a clear and unmistakable direction to disqualify. Missouri case law so holds. In State ex rel. Division of Family Services v. Oatsvall, 612 S.W.2d 447 (Mo.App.1981) (per curiam), the court reversed twenty-four separate cases, all consolidated under that style, on the ground that the judge who had acted as an attorney in the cases should have recused himself under Rule 2 Canon 3 C(l)(b). The holding could not be more explicit that the judge has a duty to recuse. The court said:
Canon 3C(1), (Sup.Court Rule 2, Code of Judicial Conduct), requires that a judge should disqualify himself ‘in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where: ... (b) he served as a lawyer in the matter in controversy .... ’ The duty of a trial judge to recuse when impropriety or the appearance of impropriety appears does not depend on the waiver of the issue by parties. Frank Ham, et al. v. Ronald Wenneker, et ux., 609 S.W.2d 240 (Mo.App.1980). When cause to recuse appears a judge must do so. Id. Canon 3 D permits remittal of the disqualification under certain conditions only if the judge is disqualified by the terms of Canon 3C(l)(c) or Canon 3C(l)(d). Clearly, the associate judge had a duty to disqualify himself with respect to those cases in which he had participated as counsel, which he did not do. It is equally clear, that the circumstances under which his duty to recuse arose are not within the scope of any remittal procedure available under Canon 3 D, even had such been undertaken by parties and counsel,
(emphasis added) (footnotes omitted). Oatsvall, 612 S.W.2d at 452-53.
The case of State ex rel. Ferrell v. Heckemeyer, 629 S.W.2d 642, 643 (Mo.App.1982), follows the holding of Oatsvall and reverses, finding a violation of Rule 2 Canon 3 C(l)(c) using the following language:
It is the command of Rule 2, Canon 3C(l)(c) that a judge disqualify himself in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including instances where he knows that he ‘has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.’
‘The duty of a trial judge to recuse when impropriety or the appearance of impropriety appears does not depend on *164the waiver of the issue by the parties. When cause to recuse appears, a judge must do so. The only exceptions are as follows:
‘Rule 2, Canon 3 D permits remittal of disqualification of a judge when the disqualification arises under Canon 3 C(l)(c) or Canon 3 C(l)(d) .... ’ Ham v. Wenneker, 609 S.W.2d 240, 241 (Mo.App.1980). See also State ex rel. Div. of Family Serv. v. Oatsvall, 612 S.W.2d 447, 452[8-12] (Mo.App.1981).
(emphasis added). The language cited and relied upon is from Ham v. Wenneker, 609 S.W.2d 240 (Mo.App.1980), a per curiam opinion of this court.
The subparagraphs are but illustrations of specific fact situations in which the impartiality of the judge is apparent. The critical language is “including but not limited to instances where.” Thus, the duty to disqualify is not limited to the specific situations set out in the canon, but also includes any situation in which the impartiality of the judge might reasonably be questioned.
The majority misapplies the concept of judicial discretion. Judicial discretion is defined in Kasper v. Helfrich, 421 S.W.2d 66, 69 (Mo.App.1967).
Judicial discretion is the option the trial judge has in doing or not doing a thing that cannot be demanded by a litigant as an absolute right; appellate courts will interfere with the trial court’s exercise of discretion only when it has been manifestly abused; that discretion is abused only when the trial court’s ruling runs against the logic of the circumstances then before the court and is so arbitrary and unreasonable as to show a lack of careful consideration and shock the sense of justice; if reasonable men can differ about the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, then the trial court did not abuse its discretion.
That definition arises from Harriman v. Harriman, 281 S.W.2d 566, 571 (Mo.App.1955), which quotes Bowers’ “Judicial Discretion of Trial Courts,” section 12, page 20, as follows:
The accepted understanding of the term does not necessarily, or very frequently, mean that any aspersions whatever are cast upon the trial court. Defining the two terms together, it may be said that judicial discretion is the option which the judge may exercise between the doing and the not doing of a thing, the doing of which can not be demanded as an absolute right of the party asking it to be done; and that an abuse of discretion is an erroneous conclusion and judgment, one that is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances before the court, or the reasonable, probable, and actual deductions to be drawn from such facts and circumstances.
Bowers’ definition has been approved in the following cases: State ex rel. Rosen v. McLaughlin, 318 S.W.2d 181 (Mo. banc 1958); State ex rel. State Highway Comm’n v. Gould, 592 S.W.2d 172 (Mo.App.1979); Anderson v. Robertson, 402 S.W.2d 589 (Mo.App.1966).
This definition precludes judicial discretion as a panacea in disqualification cases. A judge does not have two options as to disqualification under the canon; he is disqualified or he is not. There is no such thing as a little disqualification. As I have stated, I believe there is a positive duty of disclosure when such an issue arises. Upon that disclosure, there is a duty to decide the issue of disqualification. The review of that decision is not a review of a discretionary act. It is a review under the Canons and the case law interpreting them for the correctness of the decision. If on the record there is an appearance of impropriety to a reasonable person, recusal must follow.