Recently, the Supreme Court passed a decision against a group of Saxon merino wool growers, who are now demanding for it to be recalled, since they are claiming that one of the judges Justice Bill Wilson - who also happens to be a co-shareholder and director in a thoroughbred company - broke the law.

The Wool Board was represented by Alan Galbraith, QC, in a dispute with the growers over wool levies.

The case was lost by the growers, who are now protesting by saying that Wilson should have made clear about his directorship of the company to the Chief High Court Judge.

Before they filed an application for a recall, the Supreme Court had passed a decision last month that there was no bias in Wilson sitting on an Appeal Court hearing of the dispute.

A High Court case against the Wool Board Disestablishment Company (DisCo) in 2005 was partially won by The Saxmere Company, The Escorial Company and two other representatives of Saxon merino growers.

The issue under consideration then was the Wool Board's refusal to provide funding for Saxmere and wool marketing organizations. However, DisCo appealed and won in
2007.

Following this, the growers "applied to the Supreme Court to have the Appeal Court decision set aside on the basis of Wilson's involvement with Galbraith in the Waikato stud farm Rich Hill," said a source.

The claim was however rejected by the Supreme Court, clarifying it was "unable to find any factor in the shared land-owning and racehorse activities that an observer reasonably could consider more likely to give rise to some unconscious preference in a particular case than would mere close personal friendship between a judge and a member of the bar."

The growers presently hold the viewpoint that Wilson's directorship of Rich Hill should have been declared by him, under a section of the Judicature Act.