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987 So. 2d 785

Stelzer v. Chin

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 2008-08-06

Relies on Bundy v. Rudd

Decided 2008-08-06

ROTHENBERG, J.

¶1Lance R. Stelzer and Lance R. Stelzer, P.A. (“the petitioners”) seek a writ of prohibition directed to the trial judge who denied the petitioners’ motion to disqualify her. We grant the petition.

¶2The trial judge denied the petitioners’ motion to disqualify as legally insufficient, and we agree that the grounds asserted in the motion did not require the trial judge’s disqualification. However, after ruling on the petitioners’ motion to disqualify, the trial judge addressed the merits of the *786motion and stated her reasons for the ruling. Accordingly, prohibition disqualifying the trial judge is required. See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.330(f) (stating that after deeming the motion to disqualify insufficient, “[n]o other reason for denial shall be stated”); Bundy v. Rudd, 366 So.2d 440, 442 (Fla.1978) (“When a judge has looked beyond the mere legal sufficiency of a suggestion of prejudice and has attempted to refute the charges of partiality, he [or she] has then exceeded the proper scope of his [or her] inquiry and on that basis alone established grounds for his [or her] disqualification”).

¶3Petition granted.

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