Monrovia – Chief Justice Francis S. Korkpor has described retired Associate Justice Philip A.Z. Banks lll as one of the finest Liberian judges in his time.
Report by Augustine T. Tweh, [email protected]
Justice Korkpor made the statement on Tuesday, August 7 at the retirement program of Associate Justice Philip A.Z. Banks lll at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia.
“We appreciate you for your service on the Supreme Court Bench. We wish you farewell and God’s blessings in all your endeavors. It has been an honor and privilege to work with you as my colleague on the Supreme Court bench,” Justice Korkpor extolled the retired legal luminary.
The Chief Justice also asserted that Justice Banks has all the charisma and played the role of an elderly person while serving his term in the Supreme Court chambers.
“He has all the charisma. He played the role of an elderly person on the bench. He played a brotherly role. Thank you so much, the work that you have done will leave here with us,” he noted.
Also speaking, Associate Justice, Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh praised Justice Banks and described his working relationship as “impactful”.
“There have been very few people in my life that we have frequently crossed path, and those paths always impacted my life. One of such person is Mr. Justice Philip A.Z. Banks, lll. At the Louise Arthur Grime School of Law, he was my professor of Cooperate Law, at the Law Reform Commission of Liberia, he was my Chairman. At the Supreme Court of Liberia, the associate justice one step ahead of me. At this retirement, he is far ahead of me,” Associate Justice Yuoh explained.
She described her ascendency to the position of retired Justice Banks as a “divine privilege.”
“As most of you, if not, all of you are aware by policy and standing precedent, the retirement of Mr. Justice Philip A.Z. Banks lll, who for the past eight years or more occupied the 4th position on the bench, and I will now by God’s grace ascend to said post position, what divine providence. I will not be like him, but I will endeavor, I will strive, and I will do all that I can to practice those ordinary attributes of Justice Banks,” she noted.
Associate Justice Jamesetta H. Wolokollie also congratulated the retired Justice for his “brilliant” ideas he brought to the Supreme Court bench, asserting that his predictability of opinions based on precedence has always been the hallmark of litigation.
“Your ascendency to this bench eight years ago seems like just yesterday. Your work on compilation of the court’s opinion as far as 1979, from volume 8 to volume 42 has placed you on of our Liberian law repost placed you at the advantage of referring us to the precedence of how similar issues were settled by this court in the past. Your reference to these cases brought about settlement of many issues,” Justice Wolokollie said.