Judge Who Was Noted For His Humour and Courage.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17886, 5 December 1929, Page 15

Judge Who Was Noted For His Humour and Courage.

■■.... ==| Literary * {XPIRAT&

Stories of the Late Lord Mersey . Left the Atlantic to F. E. Smith . Working at 81.

A MAN who w as never /OX at home amid the IlKvinif VA a m^.‘ vorce Court or the g r ' m rea^t ' e3 Criminal Court, but who was in his elemcnt' in business conflicts where thousands of pounds were involved and complicated cash books and ledgers, faked and otherwise, piled high, was Lord Mersey, formerly Mr Justice Bigham, who has died at the .age of 89. Although it was as a financial Judge and as a leading expert on all shipping problems that Lord Mersey was looked up to as an outstanding authority, he was not a “dry-as-dust” figure of justice. He had a lively and pungent wit, and many of the famous cases in which he figured were enlivened not only by his sense of humour, but by his fearless and often disturbing comments on the problems they raised. At the Bar Lord Mersey had the greatest commercial practice in England. He was a King’s Bench Judge from 1897 till 1909, when he became President of the Admiralty, Probate and Divorce Division, a position he resumed fo' 1 a short period after the war to clear off the .arrears of divorce petitions. He also presided over the inquiries into the losses of the Titanic and of the Lusitania. Jokes at “F. E.’s” Expense. Lord Mersey had already won distinction at the Bar when another distinguished lawyer from Liverpool—F. E. Smith, afterwards Lord Birkenhead —was still a boy. In “F. E.’s” fortunes Lord Mersey always took a lively and sometimes a jsemi-satirical interest. Once, for instance, when being shown one of Liverpool’s most imposing new buildings, on being told their purpose, he dryly remarked, ‘‘Really, I thought they were F. E.’s new chambers.” Often quoted, too, is the story that when he was asked why he had chosen to call himself Lord Mersey, ho replied: ‘‘Oh, I thought I would leave the Atlantic for F. E.” -Throughout his career, Lord Mersey was noted for his tenacity of purpose. He was known as the ‘‘Little Terrier,” and on occasions did not scruple to rebuke the Bench itself. Rebuke to a Judge. It is related in particular that on many occasions he stood up to Mr Jurtice Field, who in his later years was very deaf and irritable, with a courage that was the envy of his fellow-barristers. In a specially bad humour one day, Field complained that Mr Bigham was enforcing his argument too strongly. ‘‘You

are not at all yourself this morning, Mr Bigham, he said. To which young Mr Bigham retorted, “You are, my Lord, unfortunately.’’ In later years, when he was himself on the Bench, ho had a rather autocratic way of disposing of matters which he considered not of sufficient importance to justify High Court proceedings. “Go away and settle,” he would say to counsel. “Don’t let us wasto time.” As President of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, he chafed at the delays in its procedure. He may be regarcled as the first to speed up procedure in connection with undefended matrimonial suits. Not only did he cut out much of what he called irrelevant matter, but ho dispensed with opening speeches. As a Judge he was the very reverse of sentimental Two very heavy trials over which he presided with all his adequateness and the first of the twi very early in his career —were the Liv erpool Bank fraud and the trial of Whitaker Wright. The trial of the notorious financier enddra~>atically. With a few minutes of being sentenced he was dead from poison which he had hidden in his clothes. . The change in the law resulting in tne right accorded to prisoners of giving evidence elicited from Lord Mersey the comment: “God help them, for a more dreadful pitfall was never laid for a guilty wretch.” Views on Divorce. In the course of his evidence before the Royal Commission on Divorce in 1910, while he was President of the Divorce Court, his views upon certain matrimonial problems startled tho public. It was supposed that his resignation very shortly after was due to ecclesiastical influences. Especially, in regard to “accidental ’ adultery, he expressed the view that an isolated act should not disentitle a petitioner to relief. As he put it in his evidence: “I do not think that if in the course of, say, twenty years’ married life (a petitioner) has once made a slip and misbehaved himself, that that ought to take away from him the right to separate himself from a dissolute and abandoned woman.”

In 1921, afc the age of 81, Lord Mersey returned for four months to lend a hand in reducing tho arrears of the Divorce Court, and showed that he had lost none of his old vigour and alertness.