Top judge not in debt to lawyer, court told

Photo / Herald on Sunday

Supreme Court Judge Bill Wilson does not owe lawyer Alan Galbraith a cent, the High Court at Wellington heard this morning from Justice Wilson's lawyer, Colin Carruthers, QC.

Mr Carruthers has been making his opening statements in bid to stop the Judicial Conduct Commissioner Sir David Gascoigne referring Justice Wilson to the Judicial Conduct Panel for misconduct panel.

He is arguing that Sir David has not identified the misconduct and nor met the test under the law which requires him to find that the complaint, if substantiated, could warrant consideration of the removal of the judge from office.

He said that he had explained why such a referral was necessary or justified under the law.

"What is it that he should disclose and shouldn't disclose?" Mr Carruthers asked.

Mr Wilson is not in court.

The alleged misconduct centres on the extent of disclosures by Justice Wilson about his business relationship with Mr Galbraith before he appeared before him in 2007 for the Woolboard vs the Saxmere company.

The judge made an informal disclosure to the counsel opposing Mr Galbraith in March 2007 about their joint investment.

The Supreme Court has found that Mr Wilson should have made a formal and fuller detail.

Judge Wilson and Mr Galbraith jointly owned Rich Hill Ltd (RHL), a company that owned land and that it rented to Rich Hill Stud, a separate horse breeding company that is part owned by Mr Galbraith but not by Mr Wilson.

It has been claimed by that Justice Wilson was beholden to Mr Galbraith and that he owed him a substantial amount of money.

Mr Carruthers said that with hindsight, the judge would offer to make available copies of the financial statements of the partnerships of RHL and that he would have given an assurance that "he did not owe Mr Galbraith a cent and he never had."

He had never owed RHL a cent either.

The pair had an agreement to contribute more or less equally to the partnership but occasionally there were imbalances "that were of no moment to them."