Court Clerk’s Texting Might Warrant Recusal of Judge

Fayette County Courthouse

Tennessee case summary on judicial recusal.

The mother and father in this Fayette County. Tennessee, case were divorced in 2018, and the court entered a permanent parenting plan regarding the couple’s three children. In 2019, the mother filed a petition for civil contempt and to modify. The dispute centered on which school the children would attend. A hearing was held before Chancellor William C. Cole. In January 2020, the father filed a motion to recuse Chancellor Cole. This motion was based upon his allegation that, during the hearing, the court clerk had been texting a friend. The clerk apparently had some connection to the father’s extended family, and to one of the schools. The trial court denied the motion, on the grounds that the text had not been made an exhibit or disclosed to the court. For this reason, the court held that the father had not met his burden of proof of bias.

After the motion was denied, the father also learned that the Chancellor had presided over a court reenactment at one of the schools, and that his wife was a faculty member at that school.

The father then brought an interlocutory appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court noted that the father bore the burden of proof, and that he must show that there is bias arising from extrajudicial sources. The father argued that the trial court’s order was deficient in that it did not make specific findings as to the nature of the text. The trial court had recognized that contemporaneous texting by court personnel is not desirable.

The appeals court agreed that the findings of fact were insufficient. Therefore, it vacated the chancellor’s order and remanded the case. On remand, the father was directed to specifically allege the facts supporting the remand. And the trial court was directed to make specific findings upon all of those allegations. The grant or denial of the motion should state in writing the grounds for the decision.

No. W2020-00284-COA-T10B-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 12, 2020).

See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.

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