Derek Achong

Trib­utes to for­mer chief jus­tice Clin­ton Bernard poured in to­day as the Ju­di­cia­ry held a spe­cial sit­ting of the Supreme Court to com­mem­o­rate his pass­ing. 

Speak­ing on be­half of the judges of the Supreme Court, Ap­pel­late Judge Nolan Bereaux not­ed that many of his col­leagues nev­er had any in­ter­ac­tions with Bernard as they were ap­point­ed af­ter he served as CJ be­tween 1985 and 1995. 

Bereaux ad­mit­ted that he was al­so one of them but spoke about his mem­o­rable in­ter­ac­tions with him while he (Bereaux) served in the So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al's Of­fice. 

He said he was among a group of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Le­gal Of­fi­cers, who ap­proached Bernard dur­ing their protests for high­er wages in 1991. As CJ, Bernard al­so served as chair­man of the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vices Com­mis­sion (JLSC). 

"We ex­pect­ed in­tim­i­da­tion, in­stead we got sup­port and en­cour­age­ment," Bereaux said, as he claimed that he and his for­mer col­leagues for­got that Bernard al­so had a long and dis­tin­guished ca­reer as a State le­gal of­fi­cer be­fore tak­ing up his ju­di­cial po­si­tion. 

Bereaux claimed that he first heard of Bernard's ex­ploits as a for­mi­da­ble crown coun­sel when he (Bereaux) read news­pa­per re­ports as an eight-year-old in Pa­lo Seco. 

"Be­cause he ex­pressed him­self so sim­ply, there was a ten­den­cy to un­der­es­ti­mate his in­tel­lect. You did so at your own per­il," he said. 

Bereaux's claimed that his ad­mi­ra­tion for Bernard con­tin­ued as he con­tin­ued to read his nu­mer­ous judge­ments in both the High Court and Court of Ap­peal. 

"The com­mon thread through­out his judge­ments was that he went with what the jus­tice of the case need­ed," Bereaux said. 

In his ad­dress, Law As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Dou­glas Mendes, SC, not­ed that Bernard al­ways re­mained true to his hum­ble up­bring­ing in east Port-of-Spain. 

He said that he and his fam­i­ly made many sac­ri­fices for Bernard to be­come an at­tor­ney in a time when the pro­fes­sion was re­served for up­per-class fam­i­lies. 

"His sto­ry shows that there is al­ways room for those who work hard and love the law," Mendes said, as he claimed that Bernard still serves an in­spi­ra­tion for per­sons seek­ing to en­ter the pro­fes­sion. 

The Ju­di­cia­ry's court ex­ec­u­tive ad­min­is­tra­tor Christie-Anne Mor­ris-Al­leyne, who worked in the or­gan­i­sa­tion dur­ing Bernard's tenure, said he would be re­mem­bered for his ded­i­ca­tion to coun­try, brav­ery, his will­ing­ness to men­tor youths and lis­ten to com­mon men. 

Stat­ing that he was a leader who led from the front, Mor­ris-Al­leyne re­count­ed a sto­ry when he was in­vit­ed to use the diplo­mat­ic lounge at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port. 

"He re­fused to use it un­til all judges were al­lowed," Mor­ris-Al­leyne said. 

Bernard was al­so in­stru­men­tal in the Ju­di­cia­ry own­ing its own build­ings in­clud­ing the Supreme Court Build­ing in San Fer­nan­do. 

Mor­ris-Al­leyne al­so not­ed that he was a ded­i­cat­ed lover of the steel pan and would re­li­gious­ly at­tend Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tions to sup­port his band BP Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra. 

About Bernard

Born in east Port-of-Spain in 1930, Bernard was the 11 of 12 chil­dren in his fam­i­ly. Bernard was a teacher be­fore he stud­ied to be a lawyer and was called to the bar in 1961. 

Bernard joined the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al's De­part­ment, where he com­menced a long ca­reer at a pub­lic ser­vant. Bernard held act­ing ap­point­ments as So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al and Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) be­fore be­ing ap­point­ed as Puisne Judge in 1977. 

Bernard was el­e­vat­ed to the Court of Ap­peal in 1982 and was sworn in as Chief Jus­tice on De­cem­ber 23, 1985. 

Af­ter Bernard re­tired in 1995, he was ap­point­ed to head a Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the con­struc­tion of the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port. 

Last year, Bernard launched his mem­oir- Be­yond the Bridge: The Le­gal Jour­ney of Clin­ton An­ge­lo Bernard. In the book, Bernard lament­ed over the lack of sup­port for a rec­om­men­da­tion to in­crease the pen­sion for judges. 

Bernard passed away at his home on Oc­to­ber 26. He was 90. 

His death came a lit­tle over three weeks af­ter his suc­ces­sor for­mer chief jus­tice Sat­nar­ine Shar­ma passed away. Shar­ma was 76.