Court Opinion

ID: 9573429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:55:02.465711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:40:18.221926
License: Public Domain

Hunstein, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in judgment only as to Division 3 of the majority opinion. The Code of Judicial Conduct and the Uniform Superior Court Rules could not be more plain in the condemnation of ex parte communications by judges. “Judges shall not initiate or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to them *439outside the presence of the parties concerning a pending or impending proceeding,” Code of Judicial Conduct, Canon 3 (B) (7), except under certain strictly-limited circumstances clearly defined in the canon. Id. at (a-e). See, to the same effect, Uniform Superior Court Rule 4.1 (“[e]xcept as authorized by law or by rule, judges shall neither initiate nor consider ex parte communications by interested parties or their attorneys concerning a pending or impending proceeding”).
Decided July 11, 1994 —
Reconsideration denied July 27, 1994.
Gary P. Bunch, Mona M. Keith, for appellant.
The trial judge in this case did more than passively receive unsolicited letters sent by individuals regarding a pending proceeding. By his own statements, the judge engaged in telephonic communications with numerous individuals in which the merits of the pending proceeding were discussed and unilateral exhortations were made on behalf of the parties to the proceeding. The fact that the judge did not “consider” these communications in arriving at his decision does not render the violation of the rule against ex parte communications errorless as ex parte communications are presumed to have been in error, Arnau v. Arnau, 207 Ga. App. 696 (1) (429 SE2d 116) (1993), and even technical violations of the rule are subject to criticism. E.g., Stinchcomb v. State, 192 Ga. App. 8, 10 (383 SE2d 609) (1984). Nor does the fact that counsel for the parties failed to object when the trial court disclosed the ex parte communications mitigate the error, as it is well established that
[t]he responsibility for the enforcement of [the Code of Judicial Conduct] rests more upon the shoulders of the judges of the courts than on the attorneys, although all have a responsibility thereunder.
Grizzard v. Davis, 131 Ga. App. 577, 579 (206 SE2d 853) (1974). Accordingly, I cannot agree with the majority that the trial judge’s alleged lack of consideration of the information conveyed in the ex parte communications or the absence of objection by counsel renders the error harmless.
However, I can concur with the majority’s holding in Division 3 inasmuch as a careful scrutiny of the record reveals that the improper communications were engaged in by all parties equally. Under these facts, I conclude that the violation of the rule against ex parte communications was harmless error.
*440Richard G. Smith, for appellee.