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Home / New Zealand

Unfair judge causes retrial

22 Jun, 2001 07:28 AM3 mins to read

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By JAN CORBETT

Litigants in a Tauranga property deal that turned sour must go back to court and face an expensive retrial because a district court judge conducted the case unfairly.

Taxpayers may end up picking up the tab after Justice Grant Hammond, in the High Court at Hamilton, suggested the
parties ask the Department for Courts to be reimbursed for the expenses of the trial.

He ordered a retrial on the grounds that Judge Tony Willy conducted an unfair trial when the Williams and Willems families went to court over a disputed boundary on a Katikati property.

Describing it as his "melancholy burden" to explain his ruling, Justice Hammond noted that cases such as this, where a complete retrial was necessary because a judge "so misconducted himself," were rare in this country.

According to the tapes and transcripts which Justice Hammond reviewed, Judge Willy continually interrupted during the trial, at times in a disruptive and irrelevant manner, and failed to grasp the fundamental points of the case.

The clearly exasperated Judge Willy warned that the case must not run any longer than the four days for which it was set down, and he considered even that excessive.

Yet he adjourned the case at 1.30 pm on the first day without explanation, took an unusually long morning break of 40 minutes on the second day, and insisted cross-examination be finished at 1 pm that day despite lawyer Stephen Langton's protestations that he had not asked all his questions.

According to witnesses who were in the public gallery during the trial, Judge Willy became "impatient, rolled his eyes, breathed deeply and audibly and leaned back in his chair and looked towards the ceiling."

English-born Judge Willy, 60, was appointed to the district court bench in 1985. He retired several years ago, and now operates on a temporary judicial warrant allowing him to travel the country to help clear a backlog of civil cases.

He is one of two judges who sit on the Taxation Review Authority, has been involved in legal education and has written publications on district court practice.

Judge Willy is also the director of a number of companies, including Cloudy Bay Developments and a company proposing to build a hotel and airstrip on Pitcairn Island.

Justice Hammond noted that although judges were under increasing pressure to improve court efficiency, in this instance Judge Willy's "unprovoked interventions substantially contributed to the unfairness of the trial."

Department for Courts solicitor David Campbell said he had spoken to one of the parties over reimbursing their costs, estimated at $160,000 for a case where $150,000 was at issue. But no agreement has been reached.

In the meantime, both litigants face the costs of the appeal brought by the Williams after Judge Willy's ruling in favour of the Willems, and a new trial.

They can also take advantage of new procedures for laying complaints against judges, but this process is confidential and does not result in any penalty to the judge.

Judges can be removed only by Parliament.

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