What is the cumulative impact of inappropriate comments to the jury in the presence of the jury during a jury trial?

We cannot agree with appellee's contention that any prejudice that may have resulted from the district court's comments was cured by the court's instruction to the jurors. No curative instruction, in our view, could undo the cumulative prejudicial effect of the court's various inappropriate comments in the presence of the jury. Cf. United States v. Filani, 74 F.3d 378, 386 (2d Cir.1996) (in criminal case, noting that "[c]urative instructions to the jury, to the effect that they can decide what version to believe as sole judges of credibility, do not remove ... an impression [that the judge believes one version of an event and not another] once it is created.").

We conclude that the cumulative impact of the district court's comments in the presence of the jury resulted in an unfair trial and requires that we vacate the judgment and order a new trial. Because the judge's impartiality has been seriously called into question by his comments in front of the jury, as well as by his especially hostile comments to defendants' counsel outside the presence of the jury, ² plaintiffs are entitled to a new trial before a different judge. See, e.g., United States v. Microsoft, 56 F.3d 1448, 1463 (D.C.Cir.1995) (per curiam).