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MTM v. LD2/14/2002
fact that an adoption under Title 1 will have the effect of terminating parental rights by operation of law. Matter of Adoption of RHA, 702 P.2d 1259, 1264-65 (Wyo. 1985).
[ ] The father also relies on W.R.C.P. 38 to support his demand for a jury trial. W.R.C.P. 38(a) states:
Issues of law must be tried by the court, unless referred as hereinafter provided; and issues of fact arising in actions for the recovery of money only, or specific real or personal property, shall be tried by a jury unless a jury trial be waived, or a reference be ordered. All other issues of fact shall be tried by the court, subject to its power to order any issue to be tried by a jury, or referred. (Emphasis added.)
In the instant case, the hearing obviously was not for the "recovery of money only, or for specific real or personal property," so W.R.C.P. 38 adds nothing to the father's argument.
[ ] We conclude that no constitutional, civil, or statutory rights of the father were violated by the district court's decision to deny him a jury trial.
[ ] The father next asserts that a conflict of interest existed or a Wyoming court rule was violated by the grandparents' attorney serving as counsel for them while also serving the Fourth Judicial District as a court magistrate. At the hearing, the grandparents' attorney stipulated, first, that he was a magistrate in both the circuit court and the district court. He then corrected himself to say that he was a court commissioner in both courts. While it is not made clear in the record, we will assume that his statements referred to the Fourth Judicial District Court and the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, both of which cover Sheridan County.
[ ] In support of his argument, the father cited at trial and again in his appellate brief "part C . . . 2 and 3" of the Wyoming Code of Judicial Conduct and indicated that the portion of the Code that he was reading "concerns part -time judges and magistrates and such." From his reference, it is clear that he was reading from a section at the end of the Code entitled "Application of the Code of Judicial Conduct." The applicable section reads, in pertinent part:
C. Continuing Part-time Judge.--A continuing part- time judge
(2) except for a court commissioner, shall not practice law in the court on which the judge serves or in any court subject to appellate jurisdiction of the court on which the judge serves [and]
(3) shall not act as a lawyer in a proceeding in which the judge has served as judge or in any other proceeding related thereto. Code of Judicial Conduct at 893.
[ ] We can automatically discount subsection (3) because there is no allegation anywhere in the record that the grandparents' attorney had served as a judge, magistrate or court commissioner in the instant proceeding or any related to it. We can almost as readily discount subsection (2) because we find that, whether the grandparents' counsel acted as a court commissioner or a part -time magistrate, the Canon was not violated.
[ ] Under the Code, a continuing part-time judge is "a judge who serves repeatedly on a part-time basis under a continuing appointment, including a retired judge." Code of Judicial Conduct at 871. Section A of the "Application of the Code of Judicial Conduct" makes it clear that this definition applies to "[a]nyone . . . who performs judicial functions, including an officer such as a magistrate, court commissioner, special master or referee[.]" Code of Judicial Conduct at 893. Since section C(2) of the "Application of the Code of Judicial Conduct" exempts from its mandates only court commissioners, there is some suggestion that anyone called a magistrate, rat
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