CUYLER

v.

BAY PINES VA HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

M.D. Fla. | 2023-07-21

No. 8:23-cv-347

District Court, M.D. Florida (2023) Positive Treatment

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Holding

A magistrate judge's impartiality is not reasonably questioned by alleged ignored filings that were not referred to the judge, nor by judicial rulings or delays.

Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiff moved to disqualify the magistrate judge, alleging the judge ignored certain filings and rules. The filings in question had not been referre…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Topics

Personal Bias Or Prejudice 28 U.S.C. § 455 Judicial Impartiality Disqualification Of Judge

Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Personal Bias Or Prejudice cases and more on FLexlaw

Opinion of the Court

Before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion to Disqualify Magistrate Judge Sean Flynn (Doc. 21), filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 455. In support of his motion, Plaintiff alleges that the undersigned has “ignored” Plaintiff’s “Request for Emergency Hearing” (Doc. 20), and “Objection to the Removal of the Case from State Court.”¹ Plaintiff is mistaken as neither filing has been referred to the magistrate judge. In addition, Plaintiff alleges that the undersigned has ignored Rule 16, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, but once again Plaintiff is mistaken. The undersigned has not been directed by the district judge to enter a scheduling order or to preside over a case management conference.²

“i

SEAN P. FLYNN

UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Footnotes

1 The Court assumes Plaintiff is referring to “Plaintiff’s Objection to Notice of Removal to United States District Court” (Doc. 10).

2 The Court notes that the parties have not filed a case management report as required by Local Rule 3.02(a)(2). See Notice of Local Rule 1.07(c), Local Rule 3.02(a)(2), and Local Rule 3.03 (Doc. 4). Notwithstanding the above, a magistrate judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or “[w]here he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.” 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), (b)(1). “Bias sufficient to disqualify a judge under section 455(a) and section 455(b)(1) must stem from extrajudicial sources, unless the judge's acts demonstrate such pervasive bias and prejudice that it unfairly prejudices one of the parties.” United States v. Bailey, 175 F. 3d 966, 968 (11th Cir. 1999) (quotations omitted). “Ordinarily, a judge’s rulings in the same or a related case may not serve as the basis for a recusal motion.” McWhorter v. City of Birmingham, 906 F. 2d 674, 678 (11th Cir. 1990) (citations omitted); see also Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540, 555 (1994) (‘judicial rulings alone almost never constitute a valid basis for a bias or partiality motion”). Likewise, a judge’s delay in ruling does not constitute the sort of pervasive bias that necessitates disqualification. See Loranger v. Stierheim, 10 F. 3d 776, 780-81 (11th Cir. 1994). Upon consideration of this matter, the Court finds no basis for disqualification. Accordingly, Plaintiffs Motion to Disqualify Magistrate Judge Sean Flynn (Doc. 21) is DENIED. ORDERED in Tampa, Florida, this 21st day of July 2023.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus

Citator

Authorities Cited

Loranger v. Merrett Stierheim, 10 F.3d 776 (11th Cir. 1994)
Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540 (U.S. 1994)
Hank R. McWHORTER v. City OF Birmingham, 906 F.2d 674 (11th Cir. 1990)
United States v. Bailey, 175 F.3d 966 (11th Cir. 1999)

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw