Dawn Marie Pennington v. Joel David Pennington, III

Syllabus

This is an accelerated interlocutory appeal as of right pursuant to Rule 10B of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Tennessee from the chancery court's denial of a motion to recuse. An attorney negotiated a settlement on behalf of a client in litigation over the administration of an estate. The same attorney subsequently assisted his client in the prior litigation in filing a related suit in which the party obtained default judgment. The Plaintiff in the present case is seeking to set aside that default judgment and to obtain other relief, asserting the Defendant acted unscrupulously in filing a suit on matters which had previously been settled. The trial judge reported the attorney, who is no longer the attorney representing the Defendant, to the Board of Professional Responsibility based on the filing of the suit which resulted in the default judgment. The Defendant seeks recusal of the trial judge, asserting that the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned. The judge denied the motion for recusal, finding that he could be fair and impartial, had not prejudged any matters, and that a person of ordinary prudence would find no reasonable basis for questioning his impartiality. We affirm.