Rowe-Linn v. Berman, ROWE-LIN

• Decision Date: 24 June 1992
• Docket Number: No. 92-1396,P,ROWE-LIN,92-1396
• Citation: 601 So.2d 618
• Parties: Peggyetitioner, v. The Honorable Howard C. BERMAN, Circuit Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit In And For Palm Beach County, Florida, Respondent. 601 So.2d 618, 17 Fla. L. Week. D1560
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 618

601 So.2d 618

Peggy ROWE-LINN, Petitioner, v. The Honorable Howard C. BERMAN, Circuit Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit In And For Palm Beach County, Florida, Respondent.

No. 92-1396.

601 So.2d 618, 17 Fla. L. Week. D1560

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

June 24, 1992.

Jane Kreusler-Walsh of Klein & Walsh, P.A., and Peggy Rowe-Linn, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Douglas J. Glaid, Asst. Atty. Gen., Hollywood, for respondent.

Richard G. Lubin of Lubin and Gano, P.A., West Palm Beach, for Mother.

PER CURIAM.

The petition is granted. Although we do not issue a writ of prohibition, we are confident respondent will promptly disqualify himself, and the circuit court will assign the case below to another judge.

While we do not think the motion for disqualification was legally sufficient, we fear the respondent stepped over the line in the order of denial by failing to "limit his inquiry to a determination of the sufficiency of the motion to disqualify," and attempting "to justify denial of the motion for reasons other than ... legal sufficiency." Fruehe v. Reasbeck, 525 So.2d 471, 472 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988). See also cases cited therein.

GLICKSTEIN, C.J., and GUNTHER, J., concur.

WARNER, J., dissents without opinion.