Ad Villarai, LLC v. Chan Il Pak

The issue in this case is whether a newly elected district-court judge or the former judge she replaced may file findings of fact following a bench trial over which the former judge presided before his term expired. The court of appeals held that neither judge can file the findings. We agree that the new judge lacks authority to file the findings. Under these facts, however, we conclude that the former judge may file the findings. We reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand this case to that court with instructions that it abate the appeal and direct the trial court to correct the…