UNITED STATES-based jurist Marston Gibson will finally take up the post of Barbados’ Chief Justice on September 1.
Sources told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday that the appointment was now before Governor General Sir Clifford Husbands for ratification.
The announcement of Gibson’s selection last year stirred up political and legal divide over Government’s amendment to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act to remove the legal barriers to facilitate the move.
But for several months Barbadians were anxiously waiting to see when the appointment would be made since the post had been vacant for almost two years.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart had also stated at the Caricom Heads Of Government Conference in St Kitts last month that the post would be filled by early August.
The new Chief Justice will have a packed schedule when he takes up the position. He will be attending a judges retreat on September 1 and 2 and will also be in attendance at the opening of the new court sessions on September 4, where he is expected to give his first public address.
He is also scheduled to attend a chief justices’ conference later in September.
A Rhodes Scholar, Gibson has lived in the United States for several years, being the lone black judicial referee in the New York State Supreme Court in Nassau County.
Justice of Appeal Sherman Moore has been acting in the position since the retirement of former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons. (TS)
