James Merralls QC (1936-2016)
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OBITUARIES James Merralls QC (1936-2016) James Merralls was a Renaissance man: tutor, queen’s counsel, horse breeder and owner, raconteur, and late-in-life, husband and father. He was a barrister for 56 years, a silk for 42 of them and collapsed as he ZDVOHDYLQJFKDPEHUVIRUWKHHYHQLQJ¨KLVZLVKWRGLH¬ZLWKKLVZLJRQ¢JUDQWHG The only child of Nora Hurstfield law, was in bloodstock and the breeding of the Order of Australia and, in 2013, Holden, from Rushworth in the of thoroughbreds. He bred a number of although initially loathe to accept, he was Goulburn Valley, and Colin Merralls, a winners, among them Beer Street, who awarded an honorary doctorate in law bank manager, James Donald Merralls won the 1970 Caulfield Cup and the by his alma mater. The following year his was born in Canberra. The family moved Queen Elizabeth Stakes in front of the friends and admirers established a visiting as his father advanced in his career. He Queen in Launceston. For over a decade, fellowship in his name, in perpetuity. became a bank inspector. James spent his he was also the Australian correspondent James’ professional legacy is his 47 primary years principally in Parramatta, for the British Racehorse, writing as years as editor of the Commonwealth where he attended The King’s School. ‘Tim Whiffler’, the horse that won the Law Reports – the authorised reports He attended Melbourne Grammar Melbourne Cup in 1867. of judgments from the High Court, a on a scholarship. The headmaster, Sir He was a popular tutor at Trinity and record in the common law world. He Brian Hone, had been a student of C.S. finally Dean. At the Bar, he became reported and edited for almost half the Lewis’ in Magdalen College, Oxford, a master of the Common Law. His life of the court and through the tenures where Lewis had insisted that he teach interest was not in legal philosophy but of half of its 12 chief justices. Three his Australian students how to write. As the decided case. In the 1960s and early successive chief justices paid tribute to a result James’s prose was, in the words 70s, he appeared in practically every his work. Chief Justice Gleeson said his of his friend, Edwin Kennon, ‘almost constitutional case in the High Court; editorship was marked by his ‘professional Swiftian in its simplicity’. thereafter his expertise was in equity. eminence as a barrister, his extensive legal At 16, he won one general and two Timesheets were as alien to him as knowledge and his personal integrity and commitment’. In fact, Chief Justice special exhibitions and elected to study inflated fees. law at Melbourne University, and French convened an unprecedented eventually took up residence in Trinity, After about 15 years at Trinity, James ceremonial sitting of the High Court his home for the next 15 years. After returned to Mont Albert to care for to mark ‘its sadness at the passing of a almost a year as research assistant to his parents until their deaths, months fine Australian lawyer who practised his David Derham and article clerkship at apart, in 1988, repaying them the love profession at the highest levels, and gave Whiting and Byrne, James was admitted they had lavished on him in his infancy unstintingly of his time and talents in the to practice on April 1, 1960. He signed and childhood. In 1993, his life was public interest’. transformed when at the age of 56, the Bar Roll and commenced reading By Mark McGinness with Richard Newton but this was cut he married Rosemary, and they had a short when he became associate to Sir daughter, Nora (in honour of his mother) Owen Dixon, arguably the greatest judge and a son, James. [The author is indebted to Justice Joseph Australia has produced. Sir Owen was There was an incongruity between James’ Santamaria whose eulogy formed the an abiding influence on James but as appearance and his personality. He was basis of this obituary]. Bar News is Justice Santamaria has said, ‘… it would tall and appeared aloof and detached, grateful for the use of this obituary, which be a mistake to think that Jim became yet his greatest gift was his capacity for appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on but a cipher for Dixon. Jim himself friendship. And while he loved the Bar, 30 January 2017. had a powerful intellect and his own its traditions, anecdotes and camaraderie judgment which he exercised confidently – he treasured his life at Mont Albert. throughout his life.’ He loved watching cricket – his idol This confidence extended to his work in was Arthur Morris while Keith Miller the 1950s as a film critic for Melbourne in action could not be bettered – and University’s Film Journal and in the listening to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. 1960s as a critic for Nation. His reviews His beloved wife quoted Cicero – ’If ‘Mrs Everage on Tour’, ‘Patrick White’s you have a garden and a library, you Charade’, and My Fair Lady were as have everything you need’ – as if it were dazzling and original as they were eclectic. written for him. Another consuming interest, outside the In 1999, James was appointed a member Bar News : The Journal of the New South Wales Bar Association [2017] (Autumn) Bar News 53 .