Court Opinion

ID: 9558671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:15:13.720883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:30.606766
License: Public Domain

*447ARMSTRONG, J.,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying mother’s motion for a new trial under ORCP 64 B(l). Although it is true that mother had the burden to show that an irregularity in the custody proceeding prevented her from receiving a fair trial, I believe that she met that burden simply by showing that the trial judge who decided the custody dispute had acted as an attorney for father in that matter.1 In other words, the judge’s earlier involvement with father was a structural defect in the trial proceedings that, in and of itself, prevented mother from receiving a fair trial.
The Code of Judicial Conduct establishes how a judge should act in order to maintain the integrity of the judicial system. Judicial Rule 2-106 provides, in part:
“(A) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality reasonably may be questioned, including but not limited to instances when
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“(2) the judge served as a lawyer in the matter in controversy, or a lawyer with whom the judge previously was associated served during the association as a lawyer in the matter, or the judge or the lawyer has been a material witness in the matter;
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“(D) A judge who is disqualified under this rule may, rather than withdraw from the proceeding, disclose on the record the basis of the disqualification. If, after such disclosure, the parties all agree in writing or on the record that the judge’s relationship is immaterial * * * the judge may participate in the proceeding. Any writing, signed by or on behalf of all parties, shall be incorporated in the record of the proceeding.”
*448(Emphasis added.) JR 2-106 also requires a judge who has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy to disqualify himself or herself, regardless of whether a party has so requested, unless the parties, after full disclosure, agree to waive the requirement.
The Supreme Court has explained the importance of the rule:
“The purpose and importance of [JR 2-106’s] admonition, viz., ‘A judge [shall] disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality [may] reasonably be questioned * * *,’ should be evident, because not only the fact but also the appearance of impartiality are the very currency of judicial legitimacy. See In re Fadeley, [310 Or 548, 563, 802 P2d 31 (1990)] (‘The stake of the public in a judiciary that is both honest in fact and honest in appearance is profound. A democratic society that, like ours, leaves many of its final decisions, both constitutional and otherwise, to its judiciary is totally dependent on the scrupulous integrity of that judiciary.’) * * * Indeed, the rules of judicial conduct are fashioned, in part, for the purpose of maintaining public confidence in the legal system, by imposing a system of ethical restraints that will further both the fact and the appearance of a system committed to providing equal justice under law.”
In re Schenck, 318 Or 402, 407, 870 P2d 185 (1994) (emphasis added). The importance of the rule is also indicated by the fact that it cannot be deemed waived but, rather, can be waived only after full disclosure on the record and with the written or recorded consent of the parties. For those reasons, I conclude that the appearance of partiality alone is, in this case, sufficient to establish that the judge’s participation in the case denied mother a fair trial.
In that regard, this case is not unlike one in which a judge has an undisclosed financial interest in the subject matter in controversy. The United States Supreme Court has held that such an interest strikes at the heart of due process, regardless of whether there is evidence of actual misconduct or bias. Commonwealth Corp. v. Casualty Co., 393 US 145, 89 S Ct 337, 21 L Ed 2d 301 (1968). The court stated that “any tribunal permitted by law to try cases and controversies not *449only must be unbiased but also must avoid even the appearance of bias.” 393 US at 150 (emphasis added).
Here, the fact that the trial judge had advised father on the very subject of the controversy before him strikes at the heart of judicial integrity. Even though the judge did not remember meeting with father, the fact that he had done so and the fact that it was in regard to the very matter before him compels a conclusion that mother was denied a fair trial, because she did not receive a trial before a judge whose impartiality could not reasonably be questioned. She was not required to show that the judge’s representation of father on the custody issue may have affected his decisions as a judge on that issue. It is enough for purposes of ORCP 64 B(l) that it could have had that effect.
Because the judge’s representation of father materially affected mother’s substantial rights by denying her a trial before an impartial judge, the court was required to grant mother’s motion for a new trial unless countervailing considerations provided a basis for it to exercise its discretion to deny the motion. See Garber v. Martin, 261 Or 410, 411, 494 P2d 858 (1972). Father contends that mother’s awareness before the custody trial that there might be a question about whether the judge should sit on the case is such a consideration. I do not believe that it is.
Before trial, mother knew only that her former attorney had withdrawn from the case because of a conflict in his office, that the judge had previously been an attorney in that office, and that the conflict could have been due to the judge having spoken to father about the case. When given that information the morning of trial, mother’s attorney told her that the judge was a person who would be fair and who would disclose a conflict and disqualify himself if he knew of it. On that basis, mother proceeded with the trial.
Mother’s failure to act on her speculation that father could have spoken to the judge about custody of the parties’ child does not constitute a waiver of her right to a trial before an impartial judge. An effective waiver requires knowledge of the relevant facts, which mother lacked. Hence, I do not believe that mother’s failure to raise a question about the judge’s qualification to sit on the case provides a basis on *450which the court could exercise its discretion to deny mother’s motion for a new trial.2
The majority suggests that it does not matter whether there was an irregularity in the proceeding that might entitle mother to a new trial, because that irregularity did not affect the record that was created below, and our de novo review of that record moots its effect. There is both a practical and a logical flaw to that approach.
As a practical matter, we give great deference to trial court findings when we conduct a de novo review in a case, because we are not in the same position as the trial court to evaluate the credibility of witnesses. Here, as the trial court acknowledged, the parties presented sharply differing accounts of the relevant events. The trial court purported to resolve that difference by focusing on the testimony of a daycare provider, but the weight to be assigned that testimony necessarily would turn on an evaluation of her credibility in conjunction with that of the other witnesses. Even though we may conduct a de novo review of all of the testimony, it is difficult for us to avoid being affected by the trial court’s view of the evidence.
Furthermore, our task is to review the trial court’s decision. The litigants are entitled to have an initial decision made by an impartial trial judge. The de novo review to which all litigants are entitled is not an adequate substitute for the impartial initial decision to which all litigants are also entitled.
The latter point bears, in turn, on what I believe is the logical flaw in the majority’s approach. If the majority is *451correct that our de novo review eliminates any harmful effect from the irregularity of having father’s former attorney serve as the trial judge in this proceeding, then it follows that the trial judge who ruled on the new trial motion could deny it on the same ground, that is, on the ground that mother could appeal the decision and obtain a de novo review of it, so any irregularity that did not affect the quality of that review could not provide a ground for a new trial. I am unaware of any case that has held that that would be a proper ground for a trial court to deny a new trial motion, so I question whether it can provide a ground for us to affirm the trial court’s decision to deny such a motion. Whether the trial court erred in denying mother’s new trial motion should be evaluated without regard to whether the irregularity on which the motion was based affected our abilility to conduct a de novo review of the trial court’s decision on the merits.
For the foregoing reasons, I believe that the trial court abused its discretion in denying mother’s motion for a new trial. I dissent from the majority’s contrary conclusion.
De Muniz, Haselton and Wollheim, JJ., join in this dissent.

 The judge who decided the custody dispute is not the one who denied mother’s motion for a new trial. The first judge withdrew from the case once mother’s motion brought to his attention the fact that father had consulted with him about the parties’ child, a fact that he had not remembered during the custody proceeding.

 ORS 14.210 provides additional support for my position. It provides that a party is deemed to have waived the right to disqualify a judge who has served as an attorney in the proceeding if the party does not move under ORS chapter 14 to replace the judge. Significantly, such a waiver will occur only when the parties are aware of that basis to disqualify the judge, because the parties necessarily will know who has appeared as an attorney in the case, because appearance, for those purposes, means the filing of written pleadings in it. See ORS 9.310 to ORS 9.390. Here, mother did not know that father had consulted with the trial judge about custody of the parties’ child, so she did not know that there was a basis on which to disqualify him from hearing the custody matter. Both ORS 14.210 and general waiver principles require that a waiver be knowing to be effective. That requirement is missing in this case.