Sunday Times 2
Hulftsdorp: From courts to quotable quotes
(Excerpts from a recent speech delivered by senior lawyer Ranjan Gooneratne. The lecture for the National Trust, Sri Lanka, was held at the HNB Towers Auditorium, in Colombo)
From early British times, this country was blessed with erudite judges. Their erudition was strengthened by their virile common sense, which gave the intellectual distinction to the judgments they delivered…
We had Chief Justices like Anton Bertram and John MacDonnell. Anton Bertram got a first in Classics from Caius and Gonville College, Cambridge, and was President of the Cambridge Union. John MacDonnell got a first in History from Brasenose College, Oxford, and was President of the Oxford Union. There is a photograph in the Oxford Union of the office bearers at the time MacDonnell became President. Seated on either side of him are F.E. Smith and John Simon, both destined to be Chancellors of England. No less outstanding were the Ceylonese judges like Thomas Sampayo, Thomas Forrest Garvin and Sir Arthur Wijewardene to name a few.
To meet these giants on the Bench, the local bar produced eminent counsel, who were gifted scholars, unequalled in debate and in the parry and thrust between Bench and Bar, and above all fearless and independent.
I begin with Charles Ambrose Lorenz. He was known as the morning star of Hulftsdorp. He was arguing a case before Justice Carpenter Garnier, when the ceiling crashed to the ground. Adapting the words attributed to Seneca the Younger, a Stoic philosopher, “Ruat Caelum fiat justitia (even if the heavens break asunder let, there be justice), he said Ruat ceiling, fiat Justitia (even if the ceiling falls, let there be justice).
Lorenz died at the age of 43. When he came to Hulfstdorp for the last time, Judge Berwick was hearing a defamation case between Eddington and the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. Richard Cayley who later became Chief Justice appeared for the plaintiff, and Richard Morgan, who refused the office of Chief Justice, offered by Governor William Gregory, appeared for the defendant. The entire court, including the judge rose to greet him or rather to bid farewell to him.
Judge Berwick, a Scotsman told advocate Dharmaratne, “Trouble with you Sinhalese is that you all cannot pronounce English words correctly.”
“Neither can the Scots,” replied Mr. Dharmaratne and said “I challenge you to pronounce the word “Burn”
“Returrrrn to your seat,” said Judge Berwick, rolling his R.
“There you are,” said Mr. Dharmaratne, triumphantly.
Justice Clarence was presiding at the Kandy Assizes. In one case, a well-known or rather a notorious prostitute came to give evidence. Justice Clarence was impressed with her evidence. At the end of her evidence, he directed the Mudaliyar to tell her that “the court is ever grateful to the good lady for having taken the trouble to come to court and give this valuable item of evidence”. Instead of telling her this, the Mudaliyar only said “Bahapan Vesiye”. Then Justice Clarence questioned him, “Did you tell the good lady what I told you,” the Mudaliyar replied in the affirmative. Justice Clarence remarked, “What a remarkable command you have of a remarkable language.”
In another case, an old man was accused of raping a young girl. To the defence counsels’ question “Far from raping you, even the very thought of having any sexual relationship did not cross the accused mind”. She replied “Ekane kiyanne, naki vise getath usay”.
The Mudaliyar translated this sentence in this way “The witness says, my lord, ancient erections go over the roof top.
R.R. Crosette Thambiah in his book “Counsel and Judge” refers to a rape case where one of the witnesses in his statementto the Police stated that he happened to be on a tree, when he saw the accused bring the woman forcibly, put her on the ground and rape her. An overzealous Crown Counsel wrote to the Magistrate, and asked him, to test the veracity of the witness, to get one of his peons to climb the tree, let a woman to lie on the ground, and find out from the position the witness says he was, whether he could see the offence being committed. The Magistrate replied, “My peons are willing to climb the woman and not the tree. Get one of your peons to climb the tree.”
The British administrators appointed civil servants as original court judges. Edmund Rodrigo was appointed Magistrate, Negombo. Mr. Rodrigo won the English University Scholarship and proceeded to England. There, he sat for the Civil Service and came within the first twenty and qualified to be appointed to the Home Civil Service. He, however, decided to serve his motherland, and returned to this country and joined the Ceylon Civil Service. A high ranking American official was charged before him for a traffic offence. Without pleading to the charge, when it was read out, he said, “I refuse to plead before native judges”. Mr. Rodrigo then made the order, “1 have observed the demeanour of the accused, he is unfit to plead, I sentence him to the house of observation for one week: Within minutes he got a telephone call from the Governor Chalmers. “What have you done?” he asked. “Do you not know that we are at war with the Germans, and the Americans are our allies. Kindly vacate your order.”
“The British systems of justice, does not allow a judge to vacate his own order. Unless Your Excellency gives me a direct order, I have no power to vacate my own order,” replied Mr. Rodrigo, and held his ground.
E.H.T. Gunasekera, father of S.I. Gunasekera was prosecuting before Justice E.W. Jayewardene, the father of J.R. Jayewardene. A man by the name of William came to give evidence before him. “I cannot understand”, said Judge, “when the Sinhalese have such lovely names, the parents give English names to their children” I suppose they follow the good example of their English educated brethren, who called their children Junius and Corbett,” replied Mr. Gunasekera.
The trial with regard to the murder of a basket woman, also came up before Justice Jayewardene. One of the productions was a chemise. Justice Jayewardene asked Mr. Gunasekera, “Do basket women wear these chemises?” “I am not acquainted with under garments of basket women,” replied Mr. Gunasekera.
A young man by the name of Wijesekera was engaged to a Miss X. One day, he received a letter stating that the engagement was off. He went to the girl’s house, stabbed her and killed her. The trial came up before Sir Arthur Wijewardene. In 1949 Sir Arthur Wijewardene became the first Ceylonese chief justice. About seventy years ago Richard Morgan refused to accept the office of chief justice, on the grounds of ill health.
Sir Arthur, as a student, won the English University Scholarship and gained admission to Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was medically condemned, Cambridge refused him admission. He had to come back. He came back and came first in the Civil Service Exam. Again he was medically condemned. It was after that that he was admitted to the Bar.
He went all out to obtain a conviction on the ground of grave and sudden provocation and not for murder. Those days, at the end of a murder trial, the lawyers involved in the case, had tea with the judge in his chambers, at the end of the trial. While having tea, one lawyer asked Sir Arthur this is an open and shut case for murder, why did you go out for a lesser conviction. “You know” replied Sir Arthur, “this boy Wijesekera comes from a very respectable Karawe family in Moratuwa. I couldn’t possibly send him to the gallows.”
Hulftsdorp: Survival of the wittiest
When Sir Arthur was the chief justice, Justice R.F. Dias was the senior Puisne judge and Sir Alan Rose was the Attorney-General. Justice Dias had two sons, Micky Dias from his first marriage and Felix Dias from the second. Second time he married a close relative of his. Sam Wijesinghe was prosecuting before him in the Kandy Assizes. One day, he walked into his chambers. He saw a photograph of an English girl on his table. He asked Justice Dias “Who is this girl?” He replied “This is my elder son’s fiancée; I made the mistake of sending him too early to Cambridge. He got a first and has got engaged to this very ordinary type of English girl. 1 have another son, who is far cleverer than the first. As you know, in his case, lunacy comes from both sides.”
Justice Dias heard the petition that challenged R.A. de Mel’s election to the, Colombo South Electorate in the 1947 Parliamentary Elections. Justice Dias’s brother Sammy Dias contested the adjoining seat, the Dehiwela-Galkissa electorate and got about 300 votes. R. Barr Kumarakulasinghe opened the case for petitioner P. Saravanamuttu and stated this was a petition with regard to the election to the Colombo South parliamentary seat. From the Bench, Justice Dias asked counsel “Is this the electorate where that mad chap Sammy. Dias contested.
In that case, a witness who had fought in the Dessert War, was asked in examination-in-chief “were you not scared of De Mel’s thugs. He replied “Rommelta baya nati mama, De Melta baya veyida.”
When Justice Dias was District Judge Colombo, a man who bore a striking resemblance to his appeared before him. Justice Dias thought he would have some fun with him, and asked him “Did your mother work in any of the Siyana Korale Waluwas”. “No” he said “It was my father who worked there.”
It was a well-known fact that Justice O.L. De Kretser had a mistress. Her first name was Primrose.
In a jury trial before him R.L. Pereira was cross-examining a prosecution witness. His client, the accused, whispered to him “Ahanne Hammudurawane, meyata hora ganiyek innnawada kiya.”
“Pissuda Yako,” said RL. “Rajjuruwantath hora ganiek innava”
Lakshman Kadirgamar had seen one of Collettes Cartoons of R.L in a London Bookshop. The bookseller had told him “this is a bad Churchill made by an unknown French Artist called Collette.
Nomie Weerasuriya was also a leading silk, and a supreme strategist in the District Court. He had a vast outstation practice. One of the lawyers in Gampaha took a bet with his fellow lawyers that the next time Mr. Weerasooriya come to Gampaha Courts, he would squeeze his private parts. Within a few weeks Mr. Weerasooriya turned up in Gampaha, and walked into the lawyers’ lounge. There, this lawyer walked up to him and said, “Sir. I am in this difficulty. I have taken this bet. What am I to do?” Mr. Weerasooriya said, “My dear fellow, I do not want to stand in the way of your making a little money, but do it gently.”
Once Mr. Weerasooriya appeared against N.K. Choksy Q.C. in the Supreme Court. Maureen Seneviratne was Mr. Choksy’s junior. In the course of his submission, he referred to a passage in the Pandects of Johannes Voet, and turned to Maureen, and said get that passage. At that point Mr. Weerasooriya was heard to say, “However long they put their heads together, they will never find the passage.”
Ms. Seneviratne as a raw junior appeared, before B.G.S. David, the chief Magistrate, Colombo. Her accused was convicted of the offence. David then asked Ms. Seneviratne, what have you to say about the sentence.” I place myself entirely in your hands,” said Ms. Seneviratne, “What a pleasure,” said the Judge, ” You can be in that position as long as you like.”
M. Thiagalingam Q.C. was another fearless advocate, once he appeared before Justice H.W. Thambiah in a land case appeal. Dr. Thambiah also practised at the bar for a long time, before he was elevated to the Supreme Court Bench. While Mr. Thiagalingam was making his submission, Justice Thambiah remarked from the Bench, “I have been doing this type of case for over thirty years”. My lord, said Mr. Thiagalingam.” The less said about it the better”
In another appeal case he was appearing against Mr. Harry Jayewardene. While he was making his submissions, Mr. Jayewardene’s junior was continuously interrupting him. When he could not bear it any longer he told court “1 always thought juniors were like little girls. They should be seen, and not heard.
In another case before Justice H.N.G. Fernando, while Mr. Thiagalingam was making his submissions, Justice Fernando interrupted him and asked him “What if the plaintiff formulated his issues in this way”, and set out the issues. Only a fool would frame issues in this way, remarked Mr. Thiagalingam. “Do you call me a fool” asked Justice Fernando. “I will never say that to you in Court, but I may well say that to you outside Court,” replied Mr. Thiagalingam.
Faisz Mustapha was appearing before Justice Ranaraja. Justice Ranaraja was completely against him. In desperation Mr. Mustapha told his junior “this fool cannot understand anything.” His junior said the judge can hear your comments. “Meant to be heard,” said Mr. Mustapha. At that point Justice Ranaraja asked Mr. Mustapha: “Do you think I am a fool.” “My lord, I am not competent to answer that question,” replied Mr. Mustapha.
Guy Wickramanayake was an able cross-examiner. He appeared for Philip Gunawardena in a criminal defamation case. The complainant was Sydney De Zoysa. The first question in cross- examination of Mr. Zoysa was, “Were you given a public caning at S. Thomas’ College and expelled?”
There was uproar in court. The counsel for the prosecution vehemently objected to the question and said the witness could not be insulted. The judge too seemed to be quite annoyed. At that point Mr. Wickramanayake said “My client is accused of calling this witness a hooligan. Want to show that this witness was born a hooligan, lives the life of a hooligan and will die a hooligan.”
In the Bentara Election petition case, Mr. Wickramanayake appeared for the respondent. Unlike a District Court trial, an election petition case goes from day to day. Invariably Mr. Wickramanayake walks into court after the Judge takes his seat on the bench. One day he happened to be in Court when the Judge walked in. As the Judge walked into court, all in the well of the court had to rise. As the judge, Justice Sri Skandarajah resumed his seat, he said “1 am glad, Mr. Wickramanayake, you bowed and showed some respect to Court.” “I never bow to Court, my lord. I was merely looking for my spectacle case.”
When Sir Alan Rose was the Attorney General, the crown counsel who acted as the office assistant, used to get nuisance calls. One day, the Minister, Sir Lalitha Rajapakse phoned the O.A. He thought it was another nuisance call and abused him roundly. Sir Lalitha immediately complained to Sir Alan and said the young crown counsel abused and set out the words of abuse. Sir Alan summoned the crown counsel and told him that the Minister had complained that he had abused the minister. As he admitted that he had abused the minister, and before he gave his explanation, Sir Alan said “Well done young man, I too wanted to express similar sentiments to the minister”
Lord Denning In his Memoirs says at the Salisbury Assizes of 1631, the judge convicted a man of a felony. As soon as he convicted him, he threw a brickbat at the judge. At that point, the judge was resting his head on the palm of his right hand, and the brickbat whizzed past. Straightening himself, he remarked, “Had I been upright, I will not be here any longer.”
Most of our judges too have realised that if they are upright, they will not be there for too long. Independence of the judiciary, as D.N Pritt Q.C. who appeared in the Trine Defamation for Theja Gunawardene, remarked, is like chastity among women, a rare commodity. Let us hope our judiciary will not re-echo the words of the Chief Justice of Kenya “We have the finest judiciary money can buy.”
Post Script; R.L. Pereira led the evidence of his only eye witness who was blind as a bat. Counsel for the prosecution, before he cross-examined the witness, said I am going to first test your eye sight.
Tell me what I am doing, and began to scratch his nose. At that point R.L shouted to witness from the bar table and said “Kiyapan yako p*** kasanvai kiyala”.