Judiciary In Jeopardy:

By Candia Dames -
Nassau, Bahamas:

The independence of the judiciary was put in jeopardy because a Supreme Court judge attacked a member of parliament and that gave all members of parliament the right to attack judges, former Attorney General Paul Adderley said on Thursday.

"Once the judge attacks a member of parliament then every member of parliament has a right to attack judges, and then you’ve got chaos," said Mr. Adderley, who was referring to recent pronouncements made by Justice John Lyons, who recently attacked Attorney General Allyson-Maynard Gibson.

Mr. Adderley also said the much publicized row between Mrs. Maynard-Gibson and Mr. Lyons has "gone too far".

"I’ve been keeping out of this matter for the last [two weeks] and I said maybe it would settle itself properly, settle itself down, but when I saw the judgment or the pronouncement – I wouldn’t call it a judgment – of a judge on the bench in The Bahamas which has the obvious effect of attacking a member of parliament, then I say it’s time to stop," said Mr. Adderley, who spoke during the Love 97 programme "Issues of the Day" on Thursday.

While in a Freeport court on Monday, the judge accused Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson of attacking his integrity and reputation and even possibly threatening his career when she said in the House of Assembly last Wednesday that he had been misleading in a judgment he delivered on November 6.

He said as a matter of honour, he would resign from the bench if the high courts find that he was in fact misleading, but said Mrs. Maynard-Gibson’s resignation would be in order if the courts find that he was not guilty of such a blatant disregard of his duty.

Mr. Adderley said when judges attack members of parliament they are actually attacking the whole concept of the rule of law in The Bahamas, and he also indicated that it was inappropriate for the attorney general to attack a judge.

"It is time to stop because the whole concept of a judge attacking a member of parliament speaking in parliament and a member of parliament attacking a judge, neither of those things are supposed to happen," he said.

The show’s host, Wendall Jones, said it was fair to say that the first offending party was Mr. Justice Lyons, and Mr. Adderley agreed with the statement.

"It is obvious that this is so because this pronouncement was made from the bench in Freeport…and it had the effect of attacking the attorney general, introducing even the question of her ‘electability’ in Pinewood Gardens by a judge from the bench in The Bahamas. It’s time to stop," he said.

In his latest round of scathing criticisms that he made on Monday, Justice Lyons recused himself from all matters before him, and said, "It is totally and completely out of the question now in point of these assertions that I deal with anything that may affect the electoral chances of the member of parliament (Mrs. Maynard-Gibson)."

He also said it caused him "considerable concern" that the attorney general accused him of being misleading when she spoke in parliament.

"There was no misleading," Justice Lyons said.

"The public forum and the parliament is no place for this. The thing that concerns me greatly, counsel, is this, is that when all of this dies away, there will remain on the record of your parliament for posterity an assertion by the attorney general of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the officer constitutionally charged with the political responsibility for the judiciary and the leader of the Bar, that a judge of the Supreme Court, that is myself, misleads the people of The Bahamas. That imputes that I do not tell the truth in my judgments."

He said the attorney general went to the people of The Bahamas "in an emotionally charged matter denying me totally any right of defence or any right of hearing. She is the person who defends my rights, and she has said to the people of The Bahamas that it is her assertion that I have lied to them and misled them."

But Mr. Adderley said there was nothing offensive about the use of the word misleading.

"I’ve been practicing law now for over 50 years really, and I have never had occasion to offend a judge in a manner as the judge appears to have been offended. I can’t recall ever using the word misled, but I most certainly have used words to suggest that the judge was wrong in what he just said," Mr. Adderley said.

"I see nothing wrong with that. There is nothing offensive about that because judges are used to hearing lawyers tell them with the greatest respect, so and so. [In this particular matter involving Justice Lyons and the attorney general] there are things that were said which ought not to have been said…This is a matter for which there is an answer; there is a solution and it is time for people to stop talking so much about it."

24 November 2006

bahamian law