Legal community remembers deceased jurist
The men and women who work in Belize’s judicial system today took a brief timeout from their busy schedules to pay tribute to one of their colleagues who died earlier this year. Former president of the Belize Court of Appeal, Telford Georges, who died in January following a brief illness, was remembered for his work on the bench in various jurisdictions stretching from Belize to Africa. His career spanned fifty years of distinguished public service, and during the sombre ceremony inside the Chief Justice’s chambers, judges and lawyers paid tribute to Justice Georges. Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh compared his passing to the falling of a giant mahogany in the forest.
Dr. Abdulai Conteh, Chief Justice
?It is really a loss and it has sent reverberating sounds right through the Commonwealth Caribbean and beyond. In particular his judgements, either in the Belize Law Reports or in the West Indian Law Report continues to provide guidance to judges that are sitting. And particularly at this time on the eve of the inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice later in April. It is a sad loss, because even though he might not have been around to serve on the bench, his presence would have been inspiring. Particularly the precedence setting judgements he was able to give and his presence, being around would have provided inspiration to the judges on that bench and to other judges in the region if only by way of consultation and advice. He was a great exemplar as a jurist, a judge, a professor, and a staunch defender of the rule of law and the independence and the integrity of the judiciary. That is for all the reasons we miss him.?
Justice Telford Georges was first appointed to the Court of Appeal in February of 1975. He assumed the presidency of the appellate court on December First, 1994 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1997. Also paying tribute to the fallen judge this morning was current president of the Court of Appeal Elliot Mottley and Solicitor General Elson Kaseke.
