Judge broke trust to avoid coverup

A retired judge says he broke what was intended to be a confidence so he would not be part of a coverup of Supreme Court judge Bill Wilson's conduct.

In the High Court at Wellington yesterday Sir Edmund Thomas said he had made it clear "ad nauseam" to the source of his information, senior lawyer Jim Farmer, QC, that the integrity of the court and judiciary came ahead of keeping a confidence.

Sir Edmund, a retired Court of Appeal judge, said he would not be complicit in what looked like a coverup.

In 2007, Justice Wilson, 64, had sat as one of three Court of Appeal judges hearing an appeal in which his business partner at the time acted for one of the parties.

Sir Edmund said he took action to ensure the party that might have been disadvantaged had the chance of a rehearing. That case has been reheard and a decision is pending.

Justice Wilson now faces the prospect of a misconduct hearing before a judicial conduct panel for failing to disclose the true nature and extent of his business interest with Alan Galbraith, QC. Yesterday three High Court judges reserved their decision on Justice Wilson's attempt to stop the panel inquiry going ahead.

If he cannot stop disciplinary action completely, his fallback position is for the less serious – and less public – option of a referral to the head judge of his court to deal with his conduct.

At the time of the 2007 hearing, Justice Wilson had contributed about $242,000 less than his business partner to their company which owned a Waikato horse-breeding property.

Justice Wilson says that did not mean he owed Mr Galbraith or their company the money, but the Supreme Court has found the imbalance could appear to an outsider as if Justice Wilson was "beholden" to Mr Galbraith.

Justice Wilson did not attend this week's High Court hearing, aimed at stopping the disciplinary action against him. Among the issues the court is expected to clarify in its judgment is the level of misconduct that triggers a recommendation for a judicial conduct panel inquiry and the scope of the inquiry about Justice Wilson, if it goes ahead.

Justice Wilson remains a judge of the Supreme Court but is not scheduled to sit on any cases. He has sold his business interests to Mr Galbraith.

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