Upon receiving notice as provided in Rules 63.02 and 63.03, the chief justice shall assign a judge of another district, accepting such assignment, to preside at the trial or hearing, and the trial or hearing shall be postponed until the judge so assigned can be present.
Advisory Committee Comment - 2018 Amendments
Rule 63 is amended to apply the disqualification standard of the Minnesota Code of Judicial Conduct to disqualification under the civil rules. The standard in the existing rule - whether the judicial officer would be excused from service as a juror and tying that determination to an affirmative showing of prejudice - does not accurately state the correct standard. Rule 26.03, subd. 14(3) of the Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure uses the Code of Judicial Conduct standard, and the Minnesota Supreme Court has applied the Code of Judicial Conduct for deciding questions of disqualification of judges on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. See Powell v. Anderson, 660 N.W.2d 107, 114-15 (Minn. 2003). The juror-based standard dates back to Minnesota's Territorial days. See Minnesota Revised Statutes 1851, chapter 69, article 2, section 5. The standard has not been modified in the civil rules since, including upon the adoption of the Code of Judicial Conduct by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1974.
This amended rule adopts a standard for disqualification or recusal of a judge that is clearer and readily accessible to judges and litigants. Although close questions of disqualification may properly be resolved in favor of disqualification, the Code of Judicial Conduct also recognizes that a judicial officer has an affirmative duty to hear matters properly assigned where disqualification is not required by the Code. See Rule 2.7 of the Code of Judicial Conduct.