Obituary: Sir Ronald Kermode

Fiji Appeal Court judge. Died aged 84.

Sir Ronald Graham Quayle Kermode, a former judge of the Court of Appeal in Fiji and Speaker of the Fiji House of Representatives, was born in Nadi but studied law in New Zealand.

After attending Suva Grammar School he went to Whangarei High School, then Auckland University. He practised as a lawyer in Fiji from 1945.

He entered the Fiji House of Representatives in 1957, was Speaker from 1965 until 1972, then had 10 years as a judge on the Supreme Court bench until his retirement in 1986, the year he was made a knight bachelor in the Fiji honours list.

He remained on Fiji's Court of Appeal until 1991. In 1993 he annoyed the then Prime Minister and coup leader Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka after he was asked to investigate an attempted multimillion- dollar Government compensation payment to a local businessman, Tony Stephens.

Mr Stephens, who had taken a damages claim against the Government, had used his political influence to back Rabuka for the prime ministership the year before. Reports at the time said Sir Ronald found Rabuka's action "prima facie illegal".

Rabuka accused Sir Ronald of abusing the powers and trust given him by the Government to conduct an independent inquiry.

Retired in Auckland, Sir Ronald died suddenly in his Howick home on June 18. He is survived by two sons, two daughters and grandchildren.