Judge Not Allowed to Make Further Orders After Recusal

Tennessee case summary on judicial recusal in divorce.

Kimberly Johnson Dougherty v. M.E. Buck Dougherty III

Fayette County, Tennessee Courthouse

In this Fayette County, Tennessee, divorce case, the father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals and argued that the trial judge, Chancellor William C. Cole should have recused himself.  The motion was based upon a number of allegations, one of which was that the court clerk had been texting during the proceedings.  In March 2020, the appeals court remanded the case, holding that there were insufficient findings in the record.  In November 2020, Chancellor Cole entered another order recusing himself.  That order was based upon the fact that his wife was going to be the teacher for one of the parties’ children.  But the order specifically noted that it was made on the court’s own motion, and not for the reasons stated in the father’s motion.  Since two days of trial had already taken place, the court allowed those proceedings to stand.

The father then brought another appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  That court first noted that the denial of the father’s motion to recuse was a moot point, since the trial court had recused itself on other grounds.

But the trial court had gone further.  In the same order, the trial court had ruled that the need for the recusal was caused by the father’s delay.  Therefore, it ordered the father to pay for transcripts of the first two days of trial.  But the appeals court pointed out that once there are grounds for recusal, then the trial court shall make no further orders in the case.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s order, but modified it by vacating the requirement to pay for transcripts.  It then remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings by a different judge.

The opinion of the Court of Appeals was authored by Judge John W. McClarty.

No. W2020-01606-COA-T10B-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 14,  2020).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see The Tennessee Divorce Process: How Divorces Work Start to Finish.