The president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Adrian Saunders has described the late Michael Bruney as someone who went to great lengths to champion the role of the Court in the building of a Caribbean jurisprudence.
In a letter to the president of the Dominica Bar Association, Justice Saunders wrote:
“I am very saddened to learn of the untimely passing of attorney-at-law, Michael Bruney. Mikey was a personal friend and also a staunch advocate of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). He was one of those who went to great lengths to champion the role of the Court in the building of a Caribbean jurisprudence.”
The CCJ president said that he “vividly” recalls when the CCJ visited Dominica on the occasion of the accession of that State to the Appellate jurisdiction of the Court, it was Mikey who went out of his way to organize a range of pleasant social engagements in Dominica for judges and staff of the CCJ who attended the event.
He said that the CCJ, the JURIST Project and the Judiciary of Belize will forever owe Bruney a tremendous debt of gratitude.
“At great personal sacrifice, he was engaged as a Consultant to manage a JURIST funded programme that encompassed backlog reduction and the institution of modern case management practices in the Belize Court of Appeal. The programme was a huge success. It fulfilled all its goals and placed the Court of Appeal on a new trajectory,” Justice Saunders reveals in the letter.
The CCJ president spoke complimentarily of Bruney’s appearance before the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the CCJ.
“Mikey appeared before me on several occasions as an Attorney-at-law while I was a judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. He also appeared before the CCJ last year in the case of George v Guye, a very important case on the impact of the Title by Registration Act on adverse possession and the relationship between that Act and the Real Property Limitation Act. I was always impressed by his submissions which were crisp, analytical, incisive,” Justice Saunders recounted.
“Mikey will be sorely missed by all of us at the CCJ and the JURIST Project,” The CCJ president stated. On behalf of my colleagues and all of us at the CCJ, I extend sincere condolences to his family and the Dominican Bar. May he rest in peace.”
The full letter from the CCJ president is posted below.
Wow! Even the Chief Justice of the Caribbean Court of Justice takes time to pay tribute to Mr. Bruney. The tributes from across a wide span are indicative of the high regard in which Mr. Bruney was held and his impact on others. I wonder if he knew that.