High Court tells Judicial Conduct Commissioner to try again in Wilson inquiry

By Paul McBeth

Sept. 28 (BusinessDesk) – The High Court in Wellington has quashed a panel of inquiry into the conduct of Supreme Court Judge Bill Wilson, and told the Judicial Conduct Commissioner to explain his rationale in a new review.

Justices John Wild, Forrest Miller and Graham Lang ordered Acting Attorney General Judith Collins to quash a panel of inquiry into Wilson’s relationship with Alan Galbraith, who appeared before him at the Court of Appeal in 2007 against Saxmere Co., and told Commissioner David Gascoigne to conduct a further examination of the three complaints against the judge.

The ruling stressed if Gascoigne recommends the appointment of a panel, he has to identify Wilson’s alleged conduct that prompt the investigation.

“It would be counter-productive at this stage to allow the matter to proceed directly to an inquiry before the panel,” the judgement said. “The matter should be remitted to the commissioner so that he can re-form his opinion and any resulting recommendation, this time in a complete manger.”

Complaints were lodged with the commissioner last year after the Supreme Court ordered a rehearing of the Saxmere decision in the Court of Appeal. It was the second bid suggesting bias, and introduced evidence which led the top court to find Wilson was indebted to Galbraith.

Wilson alleged four errors of law in his claim against the commissioner, Attorney General and judicial conduct panel, saying Gascoigne failed to identify the standard of misconduct, didn’t apply it correctly, breached fair process and used privileged information.

The court agreed Gascoigne “erred in law in recommending that all the judge’s alleged conduct be the subject of an inquiry by the panel,” and said he needed to be more specific in identifying and evaluating Wilson’s conduct to recommend a panel of inquiry.

The other three allegations were ignored.

(BusinessDesk)

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