Two great Queen’s Counsel: Father-son duo in rare feat-By Ranjan Gooneratne

Source:Sundaytimes

Several years ago, I read an article about two great father and son lawyers — the Tiruchelvams. I had intended to write an article about another father and son combination — Guy Wikramanayake and his son, Nimal, but could not get round to writing it. It was only recently when 1 learnt that Nimal had been appointed a Queen’s Counsel in Victoria, and accordingly throughout Australia, that I decided to write a few words about these two great lawyers.

Guy Wikramanayake was one of the greatest trial lawyers in Ceylon (as it was then known). He was called to the Bar in September 1929 and was appointed a King’s Counsel in October 1950. In 1941, he was retained as Junior Counsel to R.L. Pereira KC in the celebrated

case of Alles v Alles. Stanley Alles was at that time a Crown Counsel who was sent on circuit to Galle and returned, I believe, about six weeks later to discover that his wife was pregnant. Stanley Alles retained R.L. Pereira and Guy to appear for him. Pitted against them was one of the leading Silks, Amerasekera KC. When the case came on for hearing R.L. Pereira decided to go to India to watch his horse running in the King Emperor’s Cup. Stanley decided to continue on with Guy although he was only 12 years at the Bar. Ms. Alles, Stanley’s wife, got down a leading gynecologist from England to prove that her son was born during the period of gestation when Stanley was living at home with her. Guy cross-examined this expert and his evidence was rejected by District Judge R.F. Dias, the father of Felix Dias Bandaranaike. I believe that Guy’s cross-examination had been, for many years, in the archives of the Colombo Law Library and probably still is there. Many law students will remember the epic battles between Guy and Thiagalingam KC in the 1950s.Guy’s first question was always electrifying.

A classic example of this first question took place in the Phillip Goonewardene defamation case. Phillip Goonewardene was a minister in the Government of Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. He fell out with Ms. Bandaranaike in 1964 and was a member of the Opposition.

Criminal Defamation proceedings were brought against him for defaming a senior public officer, Sidney de Zoysa. Sidney de Zoysa has never been bested before this date, in a Court of Law. When it was his turn to cross-examine Sidney, Guy got up, looked Sidney in the eye and said “Isn’t it a fact that you were given a public caning and sacked from S. Thomas’ College?”

There was pandemonium in the Court. Attorney General A.C.M. Ameer was screaming with rage “How dare he insult the witness”. The District Judge was equally incensed. Guy looked at the judge and said calmly – “Your Honour my client is charged with defaming the witness by saying he is a hooligan. The purpose of this question is to lead evidence that the witness was born a hooligan, he will live a hooligan, and will die a hooligan. Philip Goonewardena was acquitted of the charge of criminal defamation, although Guy had not done a criminal case for over thirty years.

In the Bentara – Elpitiya election petition case, he appeared for the respondent. The case was heard day to day before Justice Sriskanda Rajah. Guy invariably walked into Court, only after the judge took his seat on the bench. One day he happened to be in Court when the judge walked in. He got up from his seat the judge bowed to Court and took his seat on the bench. Then he remarked, “Mr. Wikramanayake, I am glad you bowed and paid some respect to Court”.

“I never bow to Court” replied Mr. Wikramanayke and continued “I was merely looking for my spectacle case.”

Nimal read law at Trinity Hall Cambridge and was called to the Bar in February 1959. Unfortunately a new rule has been introduced into the Ceylon Bar to the effect that any English Bar to the effect that any English Barrister under three years call had to sit for two papers in Property Law and two papers in Civil Procedure. By 1971, he was one of the leaders of the Junior Bar in the District Court of Colombo. Sadly he left for Australia in 1971. He worked as a solicitor for one year and then decided to go to the Victoria Bar, despite all advice to the contrary from a number of Ceylonese solicitors that Australian Solicitors would not brief not only a foreigner, but a foreign coloured man. The first ten years of his practise was extremely hard, but his perseverance finally paid off. He was fortunate when he went to the Bar, to be befriended by the late Louis Vourmard QC, who was at that time the leading expert on Property Law in Australia. Vourmard has also written a classic work, ‘Voumard’s – The sale of Land in Victoria’ which was referred to as the Bible. Voumard suddenly died on the 6th of May 1974 and Nimal took over the writing of his classic work. He has been writing this work for the last forty years.

So in 2008, Justice Peter Young, the Chief Judge in Equity in New South Wales (retired recently as a Justice on the Court of Appeal in New South Wales) called a survey to be made of the 20 best legal works written in Australia and Nimal’s work was included in this list. This is indeed a superlative achievement.

In 2000, the Labour government was in power in Victoria, The Attorney-General decided to abolish the Office of Queen’s Counsel and replace it with the office of Senior Counsel. Nimal was appointed a Senior Counsel in 2002. Fortunately this year the liberal Attorney General, Robert Clarke, decided to reintroduce the office of Queen’s Counsel into the State of Victoria and Senior Counsel were permitted to elect to become Queen’s Counsel. Nimal was invited to apply to be appointed Queen’s Counsel which he duly did and was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in April this year. This appointment is not only prestigious but has considerable significance by reason of the fact that Guy and Nimal are the only two father-and-son Queen’s Counsel in two different Commonwealth countries, a record I believe will never be broken. Last year on June 30, Nimal decided to retire at the ripe old age of 80. He continues to write his work, Voumard, The Sale of Land, a copy of which he gave his cousin, the late Edward Deranivagala PC in 1998. It was given to the Colombo Law Library. This copy has mysteriously disappeared from the Colombo Law Library. At the moment Nimal’s work is a loose-leaf work and he intends to bring out a comprehensive single volume of his work next year. When this work is completed he intends to donate a copy of this work to the Colombo Law Library.

Nimal’s achievements are extraordinary when one takes into account the fact that he is the only Queen’s Counsel from the Indian sub-continent. Two other eminent Sri Lankan lawyers tried their hand at the Victorian Bar. They were the former Sri Lankan Puisne Judge Vincent Thamotheram and Presidents Counsel S. Sivarasa. I am to sorry to say this but both of them failed.