District courts'decisions about the propriety of hearing declaratory judgment actions should be reviewed for abuse of discretion, not de novo.
32.
Hence, this petition was filed alleging that the respondent judge acted with grave abuse of discretion in dismissing the case.
33.
The chief justice said that deference by an appellate court was " the hallmark of abuse of discretion review ."
34.
This reversed a previous decision by Richard A . Jones, who was removed as trial judge for abuse of discretion.
35.
But there really is no clear way of figuring out what abuse of discretion is in a case like this.
36.
The Court of Appeals reversed, finding an abuse of discretion, and ordered the District Court to proceed to the merits.
37.
It is a paradigmatic abuse of discretion for a court to base its judgment on an erroneous view of the law.
38.
The standard of review applied to appeals from decisions involving the exercise of judicial discretion is " abuse of discretion ."
39.
Because government officials must routinely make subjective decisions, courts have been vague in their descriptions of what constitutes an abuse of discretion.
40.
The appeals court said the appointment was " either a clear abuse of discretion or an exercise of wholly nonexistent discretion ."
