Lord Dervaird

Died: December 23, 2015

LORD Dervaird, who has died aged 80, was the Court of Session judge and law professor who in both roles emerged as a legal heavyweight. His views, when offered in counsel’s opinion, were particularly highly regarded.

He stunned the legal establishment by suddenly resigning in December 1989 after less than two years on the bench. Despite the unpleasantness of allegations surrounding him, no evidence emerged that involved him. His friends came to feel that he had been judged by rumour and what were vaguely termed “officially unexplained allegations”.

After his resignation, three senior Scottish judges were later questioned by the Lord President, Lord Hope, over allegations about homosexual conduct. Senior legal figures were alarmed by the persistence of rumours about a homosexual vice ring involving members of the Scottish Bench but it emerged in 1990 that the Lord President had received no information that would justify an investigation into the private conduct of any serving judge.

Later, a four-month investigation by senior lawyers and police officers into allegations that a ''magic circle'' of homosexual judges, lawyers, advocates, and criminals conspired to pervert the course of justice concluded that there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theory.

Born, raised and with early schooling in Stranraer, John Murray (always known as Ian) continued his education at Edinburgh Academy, Corpus Christi College Oxford, and Edinburgh University. An advocate at just 29, he was appointed QC just 12 years later.

Unfailingly polite, courteous and gentlemanly, he proved a polar opposite to some of his more colourful contemporaries wont to enjoy headlines from so-called “courtroom dramas”. He himself disliked criminal cases, showing early career preference for civil and corporate matters.

His quiet, solid presence, backed by sound judgement and carefully considered views, brought him forward as a serious player in business law. A series of appointments that continued throughout his life saw him sought out as a law commissioner, chairman of the Scottish Council for Arbitration (and a member of the similar London Court), and a member of the ICC committee on business law (the international body in Paris).

His growing stature grew considerably in 1983 when as holder of the Dickson Minto chair of company law at Edinburgh University, he supplied counsel’s opinion to TSB Scotland, the emergent bank created from the many and various trustee savings banks. However much he himself shunned the public eye, when his opinion on the status of the bank was leaked to the press, his name became widely known.

The position of TSB Scotland was curious: no one apparently owned the bank. Professor Murray’s opinion was that the bank had been owned by all who had ever been depositors. With flotation for TSB Group being planned, and vehemently being opposed by an SNP group led by Jim Sillars, then an MP, the publicising of what had been an opinion privately sought by the bank considerably raised the stakes in the battle over TSB Scotland in particular and the flotation as a whole.

Professor Murray’s opinion was that the “produce”, or profitable assets from original investment of the bank in the 19th century, was held in trust by investors – but that ownership could not be attributed because they were dead. To get round the problem aired by Mr Murray, TSB Group took a decision to pay off existing depositors by offering priority and preference in applications for shares in the group.

The upshot of the public and political battle which emerged was that the flotation planned for September 1986 was postponed until February 1987.

I worked for TSB Scotland during what proved a tumultuous time, and a colleague who consulted Professor Murray throughout the period described him as “...the original pillar, never flamboyant, somewhat reserved, but with a powerful brain”.

Author of a number of papers, Lord Dervaird was also a contributor to the Stair Encyclopaedia of Scots Law, International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration, and the International Arbitration Review.

A private person renowned for keeping his own counsel, he wrote on bird-watching for ornithological journals, with his love of music being demonstrated in a fruitful 11-year chairmanship of the BT Scottish Ensemble from 1988.

A lover of his native Galloway, Lord Dervaird took his title from lands immediately east of Glenluce, and maintained a home near there. He was chairman of the Edinburgh Wigtownshire Association from 1997 until his death.

Lord Dervaird is survived by his wife Jane, his three sons, and five grandchildren.

GORDON CASELY