State ex rel. Cobb v. Bailey
| Decision Date | 19 September 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. HH-68,HH-68 |
| Citation | 349 So.2d 849 |
| Parties | STATE of Florida ex rel. Glenwood Brooks COBB, Sr., Relator, v. The Honorable W. L. BAILEY, as Circuit Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, Respondent. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Bill A. Corbin Law Offices, P.A., Blountstown, for relator.
Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Douglas C. Kearney, and Joseph W. Lawrence, II, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, for respondent.
We issued a rule nisi in prohibition on relator's showing that the respondent circuit judge, having recused himself from consideration of the dissolution issues in this case of marital strife, improperly proceeded to hear and determine the wife's motion for contempt process against relator. Respondent has filed a return to the rule and we have considered the case on briefs and a transcript of the circuit court's proceedings. The respondent circuit judge, sensitive to an appearance of impropriety in his consideration of emotional issues between parties with whom the judge had social and business relations for "quite a long time," invited an oral suggestion for recusal, which relator made, and recused himself from consideration of the case. The court reserved power, however, to act immediately on imminent questions of temporary alimony and child support and temporary use and possession of an automobile and household items. While relator acquiesced in the court's retention of limited jurisdiction, relator affirmatively objected when, nearly four weeks later, the respondent judge undertook disposition of the wife's petition that relator be held in contempt for disobedience to the court's order temporarily regulating the parties' property affairs pending a full hearing before another judge.
We consider that the respondent judge's recusal order effectively deprived that judge of authority to preside in the contempt proceedings. In these circumstances, the trial court's order temporarily fixing the parties' obligations pending final hearing may stand, but the wife's petition for contempt proceedings should have been and must now be referred to another circuit judge. A recusal entered on informal motion in lieu of formal disqualification proceedings ends the judge's power to take part in the disposition of the case. Gilmer v. Shell Oil Co., 324 So.2d 171 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975). The contempt order is vacated and a writ of prohibition will issue.
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Johnson v. District Court In and For Jefferson County
...judge did not have the authority to determine any other substantive matter that was pending before the court. See State ex rel. Cobb v. Bailey, 349 So.2d 849 (Fla.App.1977); Creel v. Shadley, 513 P.2d 755 (Or.1973). It would be incongruous to permit a disqualified judge to rule on a discret......
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Schwartz v. Schwartz
...1st DCA), cert. denied, 386 So.2d 635 (Fla.1980), or to continue where limited jurisdiction has been retained. State ex rel. Cobb v. Bailey, 349 So.2d 849 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). These latter propositions state the rule applicable in this case. Appellant's remaining points assert that the tria......
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Plaza v. Plaza, 3D09-2453.
...review; finding that because the order was entered after the trial judge had been disqualified, it was void); State ex rel. Cobb v. Bailey, 349 So.2d 849, 850 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977) (holding that the judge's recusal order effectively deprived that judge of authority to preside over the contemp......
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Southern Coatings, Inc. v. City of Tamarac, 4D02-4710.
...fee issue; the subsequent entry of fee order could not be deemed a ministerial act fulfilling earlier ruling); State ex rel. Cobb v. Bailey, 349 So.2d 849, 850 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977) (holding that trial court lacked authority to conduct contempt hearing nearly a month after recusing itself). C......