James Merralls

Yes, we haven’t mentioned Sir Henry Winneke - he was the Solicitor General when we came to the Bar. He was later appointed Chief Justice in succession to Sir Edmund Herring. He was an extraordinary man. He was good in any jurisdiction. Not only was he Solicitor General, but he was what would now be described as the DPP, because there wasn’t a Director of Public Prosecutions. So, he appeared in criminal cases, in criminal appeals, he did constitutional cases, and when he’d been at the Bar, he’d had quite a large equity practice. If you look at the law reports in the late 1930s, he was in many equity cases, and he had the most extraordinary knowledge of the law, the whole law, and was a very good advocate in any jurisdiction.

Clive Tadgell

John Young with whom I read, read in turn with Harry Winneke and he said he used to spend days and days and days just going into court and listening to Winneke and he learned an awful lot from watching and listening to him.

James Merralls

He was a natural as a judge. He could deliver ex tempore judgements that … (Laughter)

Juliette Brodsky

Why are you laughing?

JD Phillips

I just recall the time in the conference room when I turned up to do a company application and the conference room was internal to judges’ chambers but used for overflow court work, and there was no opponent, it was an ex parte application and I was in full flight with all these points for this company application and Harry Winneke put down his pen at one stage, which I thought was a bad sign. He listened to me for a bit and he said “Youngster, you must have been up all night preparing this; what order do you want?” He shut me up that way.

Clive Tadgell

I’ve heard him in the Practice Court say “All right, you can take your order, but don’t regard it as a precedent”. (Laughter)

James Merralls

He was quite fearless. I once was briefed to obtain an interlocutory injunction on behalf of a company called Golden Poultry in the week before Christmas. Golden Poultry had delivered day old chicks to a poultry farmer to raise for the Christmas market, and Woolworths were short of poultry and had contracted to buy these chicks from the poultry farmer, notwithstanding he didn’t own them. I was briefed on behalf of Golden Poultry to seek an interlocutory injunction to restrain him from selling them and I made the application in the Practice Court before Mr Justice Hudson. He looked at the papers and he said, “Oh is this Mr so-and-so of Coldstream?” I said “Yes, your Honour”. He said, “I don’t think I can hear this matter,” and I said “Well, I’m afraid you’re the only judge I believe (is) available, your Honour,” and he said, “No, I’m afraid I can’t hear this matter”. He said, “I play golf with Mr so-and-so every Saturday”. I said, “Well, I think that my client would be quite happy if you wanted to hear it,” and he said, “No, no, I couldn’t hear it”. So we made enquiries and found that the only other judge in chambers was Sir Henry Winneke who was in his room. So a message went out to Sir Henry, and he would hear it, and we had to go to his room. I remember arriving at the room - there must have been something wrong with the light because there was a ladder over his desk and there was a workman either replacing a globe or doing something to the cord. So the application was made through the ladder to Sir Henry and I announced the name of the matter and he said “Oh, is this Mr so-and-so of Coldstream?” I said, “Yes it is, your Honour, Mr Justice Hudson is friendly with him and couldn’t hear the case.” He said, “Well, I’m afraid I don’t think I can hear it”. I said, “Does your Honour know him?” He said “Know him? We spent five years together in the same desk at Scotch”. He said, “Well, I believe there is no other judge - I’d better hear it”. So he heard it, duly made the, granted the injunc tion …

JD Phillips

Against Mr so-and-so?

James Merralls

Against Mr so-and-so – yes, he granted the injunction. As I was leaving, he said, “Oh, old-so-and-so will kill me the next time we meet”.