Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
JAMAICAN JUDGE Howard Cooke who at times has been criticised by the local courts and some attorneys-at-law of unduly intervening in cases in which he presides, has been vindicated by the United Kingdom Privy Council.
In a judgment handed down yesterday dismissing an appeal brought by two companies of which Kingston businessman Donald Panton is a shareholder, the Privy Council dismissed criticisms made of Mr. Justice Cooke.
The appelants claimed that he had intervened too often in the case and asked too many questions and as a result the companies did not get a fair trial.
The Privy Council said that although the complaint had not been raised in the Court of Appeal, it had considered all the passages in the transcript to which Kingston attorney-at-law Raphael Codlin who represented the companies, drew attention. The Privy Council said it was "far from being persuaded that the judge's conduct of the proceedings was open to serious criticism".
UNDER OBLIGATION TO INTERVENE
Commenting further, the Privy Council said "A judge is not merely entitled, but is under an obligatio, to intervene if that course is necessary in order to identify and clarify the real issues, and to ensure that evidence does not stray into irrelevance."
added the law lords: "It may be that some of the judge's interventions were rather premature. But their lordships are satisfied that the judge was not seriously at fault and there is no question of the appellants not having had a fair trial".
The law lords made the observations in an appeal brought by the two companies which were involved in a legal battle with the Government-owned Financial Institutions Services (FIS) arising from the Minister of Finance's takeover of the Blaise financial entities in 1994. They were taken over because of alleged mismanagement and fraud by some former directors and managers resulting in the financial entities being insolvent.
Solicitor General, Michael Hylton, Q.C., and Assistant Attorney-General, Annaliesa Lindsay, who represented the Government before the Privy Council, had opposed the claim that was made against the judge. Mr. Justice Cooke who is now a Court of Appeal judge had presided at the hearing in the Supreme Court on October 25, 2001 and had ruled against the companies.
Since the takeover, this is the third case that the Pantons havetaken against the Government to the Privy Council and lost.
