Leda Dunn Wettre, U.S. magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey/photo by Carmen Natale

A federal judge has declined to recuse from a contract case, dismissing claims from the plaintiff's lawyer that she was too pointed in her questioning of him during prior oral arguments and that a professional relationship with an attorney from another firm disqualifies her.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre of the District of New Jersey denied the recusal motion Monday in Estate of Grieco v. National Medical Consultants.

Wettre, sitting in Newark, said claims by an attorney for the plaintiff-estate, Morristown solo Caesar Brazza, were unfounded and based largely on expectations of an unfavorable ruling on a motion to disqualify him.

Brazza, who is a new attorney on the case for the estate, is alleged to have a conflict of interest because he once represented the estate's first attorney, Joseph Collini of Emolo & Collini in Paterson, on an unrelated matter.

According to the decision, the dispute began years ago when the estate, then represented by Collini, filed a medical malpractice action in Bergen County Superior Court. That lawsuit was dismissed after the estate's expert, Dr. Lael Forbes, failed to appear to testify, the court said.

Forbes is affiliated with a Queens, New York-based company, National Medical Consultants, that provides expert testimony in medical malpractice cases.

The estate, now represented by Brazza, subsequently filed a breach-of-contract claim against Forbes and National Medical Consultants in federal court.

Forbes, in opposing the claim, argued that the estate's remedy was to sue Collini for legal  malpractice for failing to properly represent his client. And so Forbes moved to have Brazza disqualified, saying that she discovered through a public records search that Brazza had at one point represented Collini.

Wettre has delayed a ruling on that motion but has demanded that Brazza provide more documentation about the possible conflict of interest, according to the decision.

Brazza filed his motion for Wettre's recusal, alleging that she displayed bias in her questioning of him during oral argument on the disqualification issue, and that a prior business relationship with an attorney named Joel Taylor at New York's Kagen & Caspersen disqualifies her.

Forbes is represented by a lawyer at the same firm, Joshua Gillette.

In denying the recusal motion, Wettre cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 1994 ruling in Liteky v. United States: “Opinions formed by the judge on the basis of facts introduced or events occurring during proceedings, or prior proceedings, do not constitute a basis for a bias … unless they display a deep-seated favoritism or antagonism that would make fair judgment impossible.”

Wettre added, “thus, judicial remarks during the course of a trial that are critical of, or even hostile to, counsel, the parties, or their cases, ordinarily do not support a bias or partiality challenge.”

Wettre said she purposefully asked Brazza “probing” questions to determine his prior relationship with Collini.

“Mr. Brazza cites no evidence from which a reasonable person could infer that the court harbors bias, prejudice, or 'deep-seated antagonism' against him, his clients, or Mr. Collini,” the  judge said.

Wettre also rejected Brazza's claims of a disqualifying connection with Kramer Levin was an associate at the firm from 1993 to 1995, but Taylor did not join the firm until 2000, she said.

Wettre's subsequent firm, New York's Robinson, Wettre &  Miller, briefly acted as local counsel in a case involving Kramer Levin, and Taylor was listed as one of the attorneys working on the case, the decision noted. But she said she never met Taylor and added that while she was in private practice, she met with “hundreds” of other lawyers.

“Were this insubstantial a relationship a basis for recusal, recusals would be legion, and there would be a veritable merry-go-round of transfers from one judge to another within the court,” Wettre wrote.

Brazza, Gillette and National Medical's attorney, Vincent Reilly, of  Kinny Lisovicz Reilly & Wolff in Parsippany, all declined to comment.

Collini didn't return a call seeking comment.