Holt v. Sheehan

122 So. 3d 970, 2013 WL 5576092, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16225
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedOctober 11, 2013
DocketNo. 2D12-4254
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 122 So. 3d 970 (Holt v. Sheehan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holt v. Sheehan, 122 So. 3d 970, 2013 WL 5576092, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16225 (Fla. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

ALTENBERND, Judge.

Julianne Holt, in her capacity as the Public Defender for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a writ of quo warranto, disputing the authority of Judge Tracy Sheehan to issue an order disqualifying herself in all cases involving an attorney who was employed by the Public Defender as the supervising division chief for the division in which Judge Sheehan was the presiding judge. The supreme court transferred the petition to this court. We treat the petition as one for a writ of certiorari.

To the extent that Ms. Holt argues that Judge Sheehan could not disqualify herself in all cases involving a specific attorney, we deny the petition. We conclude that a trial judge, like an appellate judge, has the authority to disqualify herself in all cases involving a specific attorney under appropriate circumstances. However, we agree with Ms. Holt that Florida law does not permit the filing of an “order” of blanket disqualification in a specific court file. In this case, the error was compounded by Judge Sheehan’s decision to express her personal opinions about the specific attorney, essentially attacking the attorney’s [972]*972reputation and professionalism, in the unauthorized filing. By using the public court file as a forum to attack the attorney and by including scandalous content in an order that was completely unnecessary for that file and unappealable by any party, much less by the attorney in question, Judge Sheehan departed from the essential requirements of the law. Thus, we grant the petition to the extent that the order shall be stricken from the case in which it is filed. If Judge Sheehan concludes that her relationship with this lawyer is such that she will be unable to treat the lawyer’s clients fairly, she can provide a simple written notice of blanket disqualification to her chief judge and the clerk of circuit court and file a typical notice of disqualification without further explanation in any affected court file.

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CHALLENGED ORDER

The assistant public defender involved in this case filed a motion to disqualify Judge Sheehan in case number 10-CJ-002677. The motion was a rather typical motion to disqualify filed on behalf of a juvenile client who was concerned that the judge would not be fair. Whether this motion was facially sufficient is a close question, but Judge Sheehan gave the juvenile the benefit of the doubt and granted the motion. Pursuant to rule 2.330(f) of the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration, she entered an order in response to this motion that stated: “The motion is granted.” To that point, the order is entirely appropriate and in accordance with proper procedure.

Unfortunately, the judge’s order did not stop there. Entitled “Order on Motion to Disqualify and Standing Order to Disqualify Court in All Cases Involving Attorney X,”1 after the short sentence granting the motion to disqualify, the order states:

Based upon the factual matters raised in the Motion, the Court further enters a standing Order to Disqualify the Court in all cases involving Attorney X. The Court acknowledges that she has strong feelings that Attorney X is incompetent, untrustworthy and extremely dilatory in matters related to her legal duties, based upon Attorney X’s actions and inactions in this Division over the past month and based upon Attorney X’s ten year tenure at the Courthouse which has developed her widespread reputation as an inept supervisor and mean spirited individual who publically berates her underlings as “stupid” and “idiotic.”
Based upon this information available to the court, the court acknowledges it would be appropriate to disqualify herself from all matters involving Attorney X.

Because the attorney for whom the judge entered the disqualification was the supervising division chief for the division in which Judge Sheehan was presiding, the order effectively required one of two options: either (1) Ms. Holt, as an independent, elected constitutional officer, was required to reassign this lawyer from the position that Ms. Holt wished her to fill, or (2) Judge Menendez, as the Chief Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, was required to reassign Judge Sheehan to a division other than the division to which he had assigned her. From the record, it does not appear that Judge Sheehan attempted any coordination with either her [973]*973chief judge or Ms. Holt before entering this order.

II. BLANKET DISQUALIFICATIONS BY JUDGES

The Rules of Judicial Administration provide procedures for parties to obtain the disqualification of a judge in a particular case. Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.330. The rule, however, does not contain procedures for a judge to disqualify herself when she reasonably concludes that the Florida Code of Judicial Conduct requires it. Canon 3E(l)(a) of the Code provides:

(1) A judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where:
(a) the judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party’s lawyer, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding!;.]

Fla.Code Jud. Conduct, Canon 3E(l)(a). Thus, when a judge reasonably concludes that her impartiality might reasonably be questioned because of a personal bias or prejudice concerning a specific lawyer, the Code compels the judge to disqualify herself. This logically requires blanket recu-sals even though there are no published rules to implement this provision of the Code.

Virtually every judge has close friendships with lawyers, especially friendships that developed when the judge was a practicing attorney. Occasionally, a judge will have a strong disagreement with an attorney, creating at least the temporary appearance that the judge will not treat the attorney’s clients fairly. Thus, it is more the rule than the exception that a judge will have an ethical obligation to implement a blanket disqualification affecting one or more attorneys. Trial courts and appellate courts all create mechanisms to handle blanket disqualifications. How courts and clerks of court handle this issue in the absence of statewide procedural rules apparently varies, but the procedures are invariably internal to the court and are not matters filed in specific court files. The disqualifications are often in writing, but no explanation for the blanket disqualification is included even in these internal documents. This court has never seen an occasion when a judge provided a public written explanation of this sort for a blanket disqualification. It has certainly never seen an order comparable to this one filed in a specific court file.

A judge’s decision to disqualify himself or herself on a blanket basis must be left to that judge’s own sound judgment. This court has no authority to review such a decision. In the usual circumstance where the blanket disqualification is handled by a list internal to the circuit court, there is no rendered order for this court to review within its constitutional .jurisdiction. If such a decision is to be reviewed, it would seem to be a matter that might be more appropriately addressed by the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

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Bluebook (online)
122 So. 3d 970, 2013 WL 5576092, 2013 Fla. App. LEXIS 16225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-sheehan-fladistctapp-2013.