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Case Summary for Complaint # 1090


Name: Philip Y. Killien

Title: Judge

Court: Seattle District Court

County: King

Discipline: Admonishment

Method of Resolution: Stipulation

Discipline Date: 12/09/1991

Canons Violated:2(A), 3(A)(4)

Summary: The Commission and a district court judge stipulated that the judge should be admonished for granting a new trial before a different judge following an ex parte communication with the plaintiff after entering a judgment in favor of the defendant in a small claims matter. The stipulation noted that the plaintiff had insisted on talking to the judge despite the judge's protests that he could not talk to him and had become emotionally distraught and tearful and that the judge had believed he was serving the ends of justice in granting the new trial.

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