Opinion 91-101

September 12, 1991

Digest:         There is no ethical prohibition against a mayor’s appointment of a part-time judge’s child as an acting part-time judge of the same court.

Rules:          22 NYCRR §100.3(b)(4)

Opinion:

         An elected part-time judge, who also is an attorney and law partner with the judge’s child, asks if there is any ethical prohibition to the mayor’s appointing the judge’s child as acting judge of the same court.

         Section 100.3(b)(4) of the Rules of the Chief Administrator provides in pertinent part that:

A judge shall not appoint or vote for the appointment of any person as a member of his or her staff or that of the court of which the judge is a member, ... who is a relative within the sixth degree of relationship of either the judge or the judge’s spouse.

         As the acting judge is appointed not by the judge, but rather, by the mayor, to sit in the judge’s absence, ethical rules do not prevent the judge’s child from serving as the acting judge of the same court on which the inquiring parent judge also serves.