Page 97 - ACTL Journal Win24

JOHN AND BROCK MARTLAND
THE GENERATIONAL SKIPPING THING AP- PARENTLY MISSED THE MARTLAND FAMILY: GRANDFATHER, SON, AND GRANDSON ALL ARE, OR WERE, DISTINGUISHED CANADIAN BARRISTERS. THE YOUNGER TWO ARE FEL- LOWS IN THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF TRIAL LAWYERS, WHILE THE ELDER (GRANDFATHER) MERELY SERVED AS A JUSTICE ON THE SU- PREME COURT OF CANADA FROM 1958 UNTIL HE REACHED THE MANDATORY RETIREMENT AGE OF 75 IN 1982. HE, TOO, MIGHT HAVE BE- COME A FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE, BUT HIS RETIREMENT CAME BEFORE IT BECAME ROU- TINE TO OFFER HONORARY FELLOWSHIP TO CANADIAN SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.
Grandfather Ronald Martland was born in 1907 near Liv- erpool, England, and the family emigrated to Edmonton, Alberta, when he was four years old. There, his father served
as the architect for the City of Edmonton. Ronald’s wife (Iris) endlessly told the family that Ronald was very, very, very bright, and he proved it by skipping grades 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 in school, graduating from high school at age four- teen. Too young to attend university, he worked as a page in the Alberta Legislature for two years before attending the University of Alberta where he received a B.A. in 1926, and an LL.B. in 1928. He was awarded a Rhodes Schol- arship and attended Oxford University where he earned a
second B.A. in 1930, and a B.C.L.1 in 1931.
While at Oxford, Ronald was the first Canadian to be awarded the Vinerian Law Prize, the highest academic award granted by the Oxford Faculty of Law. He played on the University hockey team, playing alongside Clarence Campbell, later the longtime president of the NHL. After his 1931 graduation, Ronald returned to Edmonton where he practiced law for more than 25 years. He was appoint- ed to the Supreme Court in 1958 at the age of fifty-one,
1 The Bachelor of Civil Law is a world-renowned graduate course in law, in- tended to serve outstanding law students from common law backgrounds. The academic standard is significantly higher than that required for the first law degree and only those with outstanding first degrees are admitted to the curriculum.
only the second Albertan to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. During his twenty-four-year tenure on the Court, he participated in more than 1700 cases, writing the judgment or majority judgment in some 230 cases.
Ronald’s son John Martland (’99) describes the family he was born into as very happy, very middle-class, with a very workaholic father. While John never saw his father in trial, he was certainly exposed to his father’s many legal anec- dotes. He learned more about Ronald’s work once his father was on the bench, when he would share some intriguing background on the decisions. The main thing John recalls is his father’s strong sense of integrity. John was raised to think that all a lawyer had to offer is the highest integri- ty and trustworthiness. Ronald’s approach to law was to adhere to the principle of stare decisis, to understand what had been said before and what was the logical application of those principles. If policies needed to be changed, that was for the government, not the courts. Ronald was a grand raconteur with a treasure trove of amusing anecdotes – a trait passed on to son and grandson. One such tale was from the old Munster circuit in Ireland where Counsel was presenting an oral argument to the bored Judge. The win- dow was open and a donkey started braying outside. Judge:
“One at a time please!” Counsel: “What was that My Lord? I couldn’t hear you for the echo.”
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