Attorney General Dale Marshall said late retired High Court judge Leroy Inniss will be best remembered for his zeal as an attorney-at-law and his sharp legal mind.
Paying tribute, on behalf of the Government, to Justice Inniss who passed away on Thursday, Marshall said he was a man of humble beginnings who maintained that humility throughout his life and in his several careers.
“His generosity to young attorneys was legendary and I can attest to that, since I was his junior in many cases in the early days of my legal career. In a sense, it was a loss to the Bar when Justice Inniss accepted an appointment to the High Court bench, but his service as a judge was a credit to the entire profession and to the country,” the Attorney General stated.
Marshall recalled that Inniss was able to quickly unravel complex legal issues which meant that he was able to render decisions with little delay.
As for Inniss’ life as a teacher and the work he did with Parent Education for Development of Barbados (PAREDOS), Marshall said he will be remembered for his passion and commitment.
“But Justice Inniss will perhaps be best remembered for his zeal as an attorney-at-law and for his sharp legal mind. He was a doughty campaigner in all of our courts and reached his professional zenith as a labour lawyer, in which field he was unmatched,” he stated.
Marshall expressed sincere gratitude to Inniss’ family for allowing him to serve the country as he did.
Glowing tribute was also paid by Madam Justice Cicely Chase who said her late colleague was a mentor and a “really good man”.
The judge said she learned a lot from Inniss when they were on opposite sides as lawyers, and when she appeared before him later in his capacity as a judge.
“The one thing I can say for Mr Justice Inniss is that in spite of whatever battle we fought with Mr Inniss as Queen’s Counsel or whatever matter we appeared before him and did not get our way, he was always cordial after the fact,” she told Barbados TODAY.
“He was respectful and he was a gentleman in the law, and we are going to miss him, because that type of camaraderie at the Bar and the judicial flare and the judicial skill that he had is something that we all need to emulate.”
Chase said Inniss was a firm and dedicated litigator whose practice was expansive, particularly in the area of employment law.
He practised in the Magistrates’ Courts and High Courts in all matters, primarily civil, with concentration on employment and commercial cases. She recalled that she was unable to win a single unfair dismissal case against him when they were opposing counsel.
“Justice Inniss was exceedingly well respected at the Bar among his peers and he was later elevated as, rightly he should have been, to a position on the Barbados Bench. His level of expertise, his knowledge and his understanding of the law came to bear at that level of being a judge. And, therefore, it was an absolute pleasure for young counsel and counsel in general to appear before him, because he was very well versed in civil procedure and the practice,” she pointed out, adding that Inniss was able to guide attorneys and litigants on how best their case could be conducted with the appropriate resolution.
The late judge was also held in high esteem by the Barbados Bar Association of which he served as president.
Current president Rosalind Smith Millar Q.C. said in a brief media statement: “Leroy or Justice Inniss, however one came to know him, was always a courteous colleague in every circumstance, a jovial man, learned in law and many other things, a stickler for good research and case preparation, and a proponent for the teaching of civics to our youth.”
Inniss, who spent more than 40 years in the legal profession, had also been admitted to practice at the bar in Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
