In Re Conservatorship of Susan Davis Malone

This is the second interlocutory appeal as of right, pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court
Rule 10B, filed by the appellants seeking to recuse the trial judge in the underlying
conservatorship action. After this Court entered its opinion and judgment in the first
interlocutory appeal, the trial judge entered several orders before the mandate was entered
with the trial court. In this second interlocutory appeal, appellants request, inter alia, that
we declare those orders void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. After careful review,
we determine that the stay of trial court proceedings imposed by this Court in the first
interlocutory appeal remained in place until the mandate was entered. Taking into
consideration the limits of our review in a Rule 10B appeal, we vacate the trial court’s
orders entered between the time the appellants filed their second motion to recuse and the
trial court’s ruling on the recusal motion. We also vacate the trial court’s order denying
the second motion to recuse. Because the trial court’s order denying the second motion to
recuse is vacated, all remaining matters in this second interlocutory appeal are pretermitted
as moot.