ST. GEORGE ISLAND, LTD., A FLORIDA LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, PETITIONER,
v.
JOHN A. RUDD, CIRCUIT JUDGE, RETIRED, ORDER #88-R174, SUPREME COURT, SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, FRANKLIN COUNTY, FLORIDA, RESPONDENTS

Fla. 1st DCA | 1989-08-16
No. 89-1397
SMITH, WENTWORTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
547 So. 2d 961 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1989) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Synopsis

St. George Island, Ltd. petitioned for a writ of prohibition to disqualify Circuit Judge John A. Rudd from hearing a case after he denied their motion for his disqualification. The Florida District Court of Appeal granted the petition, finding that St. George had established a well-founded fear of bias and that the proper statutory framework supported disqualification.


Holding

The court granted the petition for writ of prohibition and disqualified Judge Rudd from further action in the case. The court held that St. George's motion and affidavit supported a conclusion that the movant had a well-founded fear of not receiving a fair trial, and that the second portion of section 38.10 did not control proceedings before Judge Rudd because Judge Cooksey's disqualification was pursuant to section 38.10, not section 38.02.


Headnotes

[1] A motion to disqualify a judge based on allegations of prejudice is governed by section 38.10, Florida Statutes, not section 38.02.

[2] Allegations that a judge's child is employed by a party, that the judge dined with a party, that a party provided something of value to the judge, or that a party took th…

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Key Quotes

“the son of the judge was an employee of one of the plaintiffs, the judge was observed having dinner with one of the plaintiffs during the pendency of the action, plaintiffs provided something of value to the judge during the pendency of the action, and two of the plaintiffs may have taken the judge on a fishing trip during the pendency of the action”

The four factual bases cited in St. George's motion for disqualification, establishing potential sources of bias.

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Facts & Procedural History

St. George Island, Ltd. moved to disqualify Judge Kenneth Cooksey, citing four factual bases: the judge's son was employed by one of the plaintiffs, t…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

By petition for writ of prohibition, St. George Island, Ltd. (St. George) seeks review of an order of the Honorable John A. Rudd, Circuit Judge, Retired, which denied a motion for his disqualification. We grant relief.

This is a companion case to one identically styled and recently decided by this court, St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 1st DCA, 1989) (on rehearing) (St. George I). In fact this case is identical to that with one exception, as will be discussed below. In all other respects we rely on our opinion in St. George I and the legal conclusions announced therein.

As stated in that opinion, St. George moved to disqualify Judge Kenneth Cook-sey in this and other cases. We found that Judge Cooksey had disqualified himself on his own motion in the underlying circuit court action in case number 89-727, see id., 547 So. 2d at 960 n. 4. However, in the circuit court action that underlies this case, Judge Cooksey disqualified himself on the motion of St. George. Respondents argue that St. George’s motion was made pursuant to sections 38.02 and 38.10, Florida Statutes, and it therefore follows that the second portion of section 38.10 controls the proceedings in the lower tribunal. Judge Rudd has held that he does stand fair and impartial between the parties and respondents conclude that the motion to disqualify Judge Rudd was properly denied. We do not agree.

St. George’s motion to disqualify Judge Cooksey did cite to both statutory sections and alleged four factual bases, that the son of the judge was an employee of one of the plaintiffs, the judge was observed having dinner with one of the plaintiffs during the pendency of the action, plaintiffs provided something of value to the judge during the pendency of the action, and two of the plaintiffs may have taken the judge on a fishing trip during the pendency of the action. Of these four grounds, only the first is arguably cognizable under section 38.02, while the other three obviously concern possible prejudice of the trial judge, grounds for disqualification under section 38.10. In his order of recusal, Judge Cook-sey found that the allegations of movant “seriously impugn the integrity of the Court. Due to these spurious allegations, the undersigned would not feel comfortable presiding further in this case.” Although the order did not expressly rely on section 38.10, we find these remarks inconsistent with a conclusion that Judge Cooksey re-cused himself because of his son’s alleged employment with one of the parties. Accordingly, we find that Judge Cooksey’s disqualification was pursuant to a 38.10 motion and not a section 38.02 suggestion. Therefore the second portion of section 38.-10 does not control proceedings before Judge Rudd on the motion to disqualify him.

As in St. George I, we find that St. George’s motion and accompanying affida vit support a conclusion that the movant has a well-founded fear he will not receive a fair trial at the hands of the judge. We grant the petition and issue the writ of prohibition, disqualifying Judge Rudd from taking any further action on the cause pending in the circuit court. Further, we again certify that the proper interpretation of the second portion of section 38.10, Florida Statutes, presents a question of great public importance.

SMITH, WENTWORTH and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Brown v. ST. George Island, Ltd., 561 So. 2d 253 (Fla. 1990)
    …GRIMES, Justice. Petitioners seek review of the decisions in St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), and St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 961 [*254] (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), wherein the district court of appeal certified the unarticulated question of how to interpret section 38.10, Florida Statutes (1989). We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution. See…
  • ST. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 553 So. 2d 772 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989)
    …ication. This court has previously considered two petitions for writ of prohibition arising from the same factual background, see St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (St. George I) and St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 961 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989) (St. George II). We incorporate by reference our recitation of the facts and conclusions of law set forth in those opinions and will here discuss these cases only insofar as they differ from those. The three underlying civil cas…
  • Brown v. ST. George Island, Ltd., 562 So. 2d 684 (Fla. 1990)
    …ee eases characterized by the district court of appeal as being similar to the case it decided in St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 958 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989). We have recently reviewed that case together with St. George Island, Ltd. v. Rudd, 547 So. 2d 961 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989), in our recent decision of Brown v. St. George Island, Ltd., 561 So. 2d 253 (Fla.1990).1 Our decision in Brown disposes of the cases before us. Because none of the recusals in those cases were upon the motion of Stocks, his motio…

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