Ex Parte Cotton

Helen Cotton petitions this Court for a writ of mandamus directing Judge Horace H. Nation III to recuse himself from a case now before him in which she is the plaintiff. She contends that recusal is required under Canon of Judicial Ethics 3(C)(1) because, she says, there is an appearance of impropriety because Judge Nation was a defendant in a separate civil action and in that earlier action was represented by the same attorney that is representing the defendant in Ms. Cotton's case. Therefore, she contends that, pursuant to Advisory Opinion 88-337 issued by the Judicial Inquiry Commission on…