JOSHUA CUMMINGS, PETITIONER,
v.
BRILLIANT MONTALVO, RESPONDENT

Fla. 5th DCA | 2014-02-03
No. 5D13-4431
SAWAYA, PALMER and LAWSON, JJ., concur.
135 So. 3d 389 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fifth District (2014) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

Petitioner seeks prohibition following an order denying his motion to disqualify the trial judge. The motion, which sought disqualification based upon the judge’s statements indicating that she had strongly and definitively prejudged Petitioner’s credibility in an unfavorable fashion, should have been granted. See Brown v. St. George Island, Ltd., 561 So.2d 253, 257 (Fla.1990). Because Petitioner has alleged facts that would create in a reasonably prudent person a well-founded fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial, id., we quash the order denying the motion to disqualify and remand to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We trust that the issuance of a formal writ will be unnecessary.

PETITION GRANTED.

SAWAYA, PALMER and LAWSON, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


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Cited By

  • …omments suggested that she had prejudged the case); Wade v. Wade, 123 So. 3d 697, 698 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013) (holding that disqualification is required where the trial court announced its ruling before hearing all of the evidence); Cummings v. Montalvo, 135 So. 3d 389, 389 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (finding that disqualification was required because the judge’s statements reflected that she had prejudged a party’s credibility); Amato v. Winn Dixie Stores/Sedgwick James, 810 So. 2d 979, 980-83 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002) (findi…
  • …d 774, 776 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). 6 The order expressly implicated the General Counsel. 7 We are cognizant that “[s]uch a stringent rule may sometimes bar trial by judges who have no actual bias and who would do their very best to weigh the scales of 135 So. 3d 389 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (“The motion, which sought disqualification based upon the judge’s statements indicating that she had strongly and definitively prejudged Petitioner’s credibility in an unfavorable fashion, should have been granted.”); Holmes v.…
  • …d 774, 776 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992). 6 The order expressly implicated the General Counsel. 7 We are cognizant that “[s]uch a stringent rule may sometimes bar trial by judges who have no actual bias and who would do their very best to weigh the scales of 135 So. 3d 389 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (“The motion, which sought disqualification based upon the judge’s statements indicating that she had strongly and definitively prejudged Petitioner’s credibility in an unfavorable fashion, should have been granted.”); Holmes v.…

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