Opinion 94-96

November 15, 1994

Note on terminology: This Opinion uses the term "town council" as a synonym for "town board."

Digest:         Where the town council is the body that fixes the judge’s salary, a town justice should not preside in a case where the plaintiff is a town councilman and defendant is the husband of a town councilwoman.

Rules:          22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.3(c)(1)

Opinion:

         A town justice asks whether there should be recusal in a case where the plaintiff is a town councilman of the town where the judge sits, and the defendant is the husband of a town councilwoman in the same town.

         The Committee presumes that the plaintiff, by virtue of being a town councilman, serves as member of the body that fixes the judge’s salary. Under such circumstances, the Committee is of the opinion that the judge should not preside over the case.