Departing judge flings CJ into Rich Hill horse manure

Justice Bill Wilson saved himself and the NZ judiciary further embarrassment when last month he resigned from the Supreme Court ... On the way out he dumped the country's chief justice Dame Sian Elias in the horse merde

Wilson: insufficient disclosureAcross the watery divide relief has broken out that the NZ Supreme Court's Justice Bill Wilson finally went into the library and shot himself (metaphorically speaking).

Wilson had been successful in judicial review proceedings against a decision of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner to refer his conduct to a Judicial Review Panel for investigation.

The NZ High Court said the JCC was required to start again with more particulars of Wilson's alleged sins.

There were some spirited responses by lawyers to the High Court decision.

All of this arose from the Saxmere v Wool Board litigation, upon which Justinian has reported in loving, yet cruel, detail - including the flurry of faxes between one of the ornaments of the NZ bar, Jim Farmer QC, and retired appeal judge Sir Ted Thomas.

See: The appeal of a silk's purse.

The nub of the allegation was that Wilson had sat on the appeal in which the Wool Board was successful and had not fully disclosed his business relationship in a horse stud and property business with counsel appearing for the appellant, Alan Galbraith QC.

At various points in this vexed story Wilson was found to have owed amounts between $240,000 and $600,000 to Galbraith, largely arising from guarantees that the barrister had made to secure the judge's bank borrowings.

Wilson denied owing Galbraith "a penny". The financial details are murky and the kindest that can be said is that there was a significant imbalance in their respective shareholdings in the company Rich Hill Ltd.

Now that Wilson has hurrumphed off the bench, the matter is closed and there is to be no further investigation into the exact nature of the "imbalance" or "informal expense arrangements" and how little or how much was disclosed to counsel for Saxmere.

Dame Sian: horse playHowever, as a departing gesture Wilson unloaded on Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias.

He disclosed to a journalist on the New Zealand Herald, Deborah Coddington, who also happens to be married to Colin Carruthers QC, who acted for Wilson in the judicial review application, that Elias and her husband Hugh Fletcher also were involved in horse breeding partnerships at Rich Hill and had visited the property several times.

When he was a barrister Wilson appeared before Elias, as did Galbraith. The breeding partnership and Rich Hill were thought not be important enough to be put on the public record.

In providing a platform for Wilson's final salvo, Coddington also helpfully dumped on counsel for the Saxmere interests, Sue Grey, who has been calling for a commission of inquiry into the "wider issues" around Wilson's relationship with the CJ.

Coddington said "Grey is no stranger to issues of conflict".

In 2003 she represented one of the scampi fishers appearing before a select committee of inquiry. She also began a romantic attachment with a Green MP, who had to stand down from the committee after the government department complained.

Five years later, when Grey was a lawyer for the Conservation Department, "she was sacked for conflict of interest because she was also acting for Saxmere".

However, the final swipe should go to Bill Wilson himself, who tried valiantly to narrow the concept of a judicial conflict of interest.

"Let's be absolutely clear," Bill said. "What is a conflict of interest? It is when you have an interest in the outcome of the case."

Nice try.

Why didn't he just recuse himself form sitting, or make an open disclosure to the court, when Galbraith appeared?

Because he had "a duty to sit".

Bill is to become a mediator and arbitrator.