SETH FROHLICH
v.
NATIONAL CONCRETE PRESERVATION, INC.
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A trial judge must be disqualified when comments made during proceedings create a well-founded fear of bias, particularly when the judge threatens a party with criminal investigation or prosecution.
[1] A judge's threats of criminal investigation or prosecution directed at a party during litigation create a well-founded fear of bias sufficient to warrant disqualification…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Most significantly, however, the trial judge threatened the party with criminal investigation several times. That alone would cause a party to fear that the trial judge was biased against it, and the party could not receive a fair trial.”
Cited precedent from Hollywood Park Apartments establishing that threats of criminal investigation by a judge constitute grounds for disqualification.
Petitioners sought to disqualify the assigned trial judge in a dispute with respondent condominium associations based on comments made by the judge in…
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PER CURIAM.
Petitioners seek a writ of prohibition to disqualify the assigned trial judge from further presiding over their dispute involving respondents.
Relying upon established precedent, we conclude the comments outlined in the disqualification motion filed below were sufficient to support a well-
founded fear of bias. See Hollywood Park Apartments W., LLC v. City of
Hollywood, 353 So. 3d 662, 663 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) (“Most significantly,
however, the trial judge threatened the party with criminal investigation several times. That alone would cause a party to fear that the trial judge was biased against it, and the party could not receive a fair trial.”); Copiers Int’l
Corp. v. All Am. Bus. Sys., Inc., 825 So. 2d 438, 438 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002) (“The judge’s remarks as to why plaintiff had not referred [petitioner] to the state attorney’s office for criminal prosecution based on the complaint’s allegations, and the judge’s direction that plaintiff conduct discovery to determine such criminal liability, provide a well-founded fear that [petitioner] would not be afforded a fair trial.”); see also In re Est. of Elliott, 993 P. 2d 474,
482 (Colo. 2000) (directing disqualification after judge stated to party “you are going to be in an awful lot of trouble with the District Attorney’s office if we don’t get this matter straightened up”). Accordingly, we grant the petition.
We withhold formal issuance of the writ, as we are confident the trial judge will promptly issue an order of disqualification.
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Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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Frohlich v. Nat'l Concrete Pres., Inc., 353 So. 3d 662 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023)
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Frohlich v. Nat'l Concrete Pres., Inc. (Fla. 3d DCA 2023)…lving respondents. Relying upon established precedent, we conclude the comments outlined in the disqualification motion filed below were sufficient to support a well- founded fear of bias. See Hollywood Park Apartments W., LLC v. City of Hollywood, 353 So. 3d 662, 663 (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) (“Most significantly, however, the trial judge threatened the party with criminal investigation several times. That alone would cause a party to fear that the trial judge was biased against it, and the party could not recei…1 / 2
Authorities Cited
- Copiers Int'l Corp. v. ALL Am. Bus. Sys., Inc., 825 So. 2d 438 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002)
- Frohlich v. Nat'l Concrete Pres., Inc., 353 So. 3d 662 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023)