Rule 63.Disability of a Judge

Rule 63 is one paragraph, and the Comments record that it was amended to delete jury references and correct the nomenclature for the Probate Court.

When it applies

The trigger is a judge who, by reason of death, sickness, resignation, removal or other disability, cannot perform the duties to be performed by the court under these rules. The timing is precise: it operates after findings of fact and conclusions of law are filed. Before that point the rule does not reach.

Who takes over

Any other judge regularly sitting in or assigned to the court in which the action was tried may perform those duties — but only on assignment by the Chief Judge, or, if the Chief Judge is the one disabled, by the senior judge of the Administrative Committee present and qualified to act. The substitution is not something the parties arrange or the successor judge assumes.

The escape

The closing clause is the practical one. If the substitute judge is satisfied that he cannot perform those duties because he did not preside at the trial or for any other reason, he may in his discretion grant a new trial.

That is broader than it first reads. The stated reason — not having presided — is available in every case the rule covers, and "or for any other reason" leaves the judgment entirely with the successor. A party facing a substitution should expect the question to be asked.

Rule 52 supplies the findings the rule is keyed to, and Rule 59 the general power to grant a new trial.