Kaftan-wearing Rob Moodie 'not an old codger' – judges
But he loses his bid for a judicial review of an unfavourable Employment Court decision.
The Court of Appeal has struck out colourful kaftan-wearing lawyer Rob Moodie’s application for a judicial review of an Employment Court decision, labelling it “so clearly bad”.
The lawyer and former police officer, now in his 70s, applied to the Court of Appeal in September, asking for it to review an earlier Employment Court decision regarding his treatment of former colleague and friend Elizabeth Strachan.
In that decision, the Employment Court ordered Dr Moodie to compensate Ms Strachan nearly $60,000 in unpaid wages and $30,000 compensation for unjustified constructive dismissal after she left Moodie and Co in December 2006.
Justices Mark O’Regan, Raynor Asher and Christine French have now ruled out any possibility of such a review and have awarded standard appeal costs to Ms Strachan.
Representing himself during the September hearing, Mr Moodie accused Employment Court judge Graeme Colgan of discrimination after he referred to the case as “a sad end to Dr Moodie’s long and colourful character”.
In September, Dr Moodie told the court the statement could not have been further from the truth.
“Retirement couldn’t be further from my mind. I’ve got a full case load and I’m enjoying my work. The comments were embarrassing and humiliating and unsupportable.”
The Court of Appeal accepted there was no basis for the judge to say this would be Dr Moodie’s last case.
But they also said the judge did not use the term "old codger".
“We do not think a reasonable reader would infer that the applicant was an old codger. He is not.”
Dr Moodie attracted national attention in 2006, when he officially changed his name to Miss Alice and started wearing women’s clothing and kaftans to court appearances in protest of the macho culture within the judicial system.
Blair Cunningham
Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Thu, 08 Nov 2012
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Kaftan-wearing Rob Moodie 'not an old codger' – judges
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