Mr Justice Casey ‘does what he believes is right’

Press, 15 July 1985, Page 4

Mr Justice Casey ‘does what he believes is right’

Mr Justice Casey, the judge who granted an interim injunction to stop the All Black tour to South Africa, began his service as a High Court judge in Christchurch.

His Honour, who legal colleagues describe as a man who would do what he thought was right, was appointed to the then Supreme Court in 1974. From Auckland, he was posted to the Bench in Christchurch.

He was a High Court judge in Christchurch until 1982 when he went to Auckland, exchanging places with Mr Justice Holland.

Mr Justice Casey spent most of his career as a practising lawyer with a large Auckland firm, Buddle Weir and Company (now Bell, Gully, Buddle, and Weir), where he specialised in civil litigation. A former colleague and partner in the same firm, Mr Julian Miles, said that Mr Justice Casey joined the firm in the 19505. He thought he worked briefly with a Wellington firm before going to Auckland. “He worked primarily in accident compensation work. Defamation was an-

other of his interests,” Mr Miles said. Mr Miles, who has remained a friend of Mr Justice Casey, said his partner had a natural instinct for the law. “He is an intelligent, compassionate man with an interest for the law and to do what is right,” he said. “There is no question that he would do what he thought was right.”

This sentiment was echoed by a Christchurch Queen’s Counsellor, Mr Barrie Atkinson, who appeared before Mr Justice Casey several times. “He is a man who does what he believes is right,” Mr Atkinson said. He said that Mr Justice Casey had not been a controversial figure and did not accept that his latest decision was controversial. Controversial or not, Mr Justice Casey has been involved in some interesting legal cases and measures in the last six years. It was he who in 1982 allowed an appeal to the High Court against a Planning Tribunal decision to grant water rights for the high dam at Clyde, sending the whole case back to the tribunal. The next month the Government announced plans to pass empowering legislation for the Clyde dam. Earlier in 1982 the Penal Policy Review Committee, chaired by Mr Justice Casey, had made its final report. The committee urged 73 changes in the law, including the abolition of mandatory life sentences of imprisonment for murder and that the courts be given

power to confiscate vehicles after alcohol-related driving offences. In 1979 Mr Justice Casey resigned as chairman of the International Year of the Child Committee on Law and the Needs of the Child after allegations questioning the integrity and honesty of judges. He criticised the Families Need Fathers Society for alleging “judicial misuses of evidence” in custody cases. He said that while there could be no objection to criticism of the courts and judicial officers, criticism that questioned their honesty and integrity was unaccceptable. Mr Justice Casey, who is 62, was born in Christchurch, and educated at St Patrick’s College, Wellington, and Victoria University of Wellington. He graduated from Victoria University with a master’s degree in law, with honours. He has been a councillor and vice-president of the Auckland District Law Society and a councillor of the New Zealand Law Society. He has had published a volume on hire purchase in New Zealand. Mr Justice Casey is married, with 12 children.