The Judiciary notes with much sadness the passing of distinguished jurist, Hon. Justice Cecil Dennis Morrison OJ CD KC on the 3rd February 2024. Justice Morrison served as a Justice of Appeal on the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal from July 2015. He brought to this role not only a breadth and depth of experience garnered from more that 40 years in the legal profession but also a passion for the rule of law and for jurisprudential excellence. While serving on the Courts here he was well respected for his intellectual acuity, research, and scholarship. Complex legal arguments were quickly distilled leading to clear and well-reasoned judgments. In person he was unfailingly courteous and kind to all who appeared before him. He endeavoured to listen more than he spoke, one of the hall marks of true wisdom.
President of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal Sir John Goldring stated that:
“The passing of Dennis Morrison is a great loss to the Court of Appeal and to the Cayman Islands. He was universally admired as a leading judicial figure in the Caribbean and generally. His contribution to the Court of Appeal was immense. Not only was Dennis Morrison an outstanding jurist, but he was also a man of genuine humility, kindness, and had a wonderful sense of humour.”
We are conscious that his contribution to the legal field was an expansive one across the Caribbean region, the Cayman Islands being only one of the countries in which he served. Following a stellar career as an advocate in his native Jamaica he served as an appellate judge on the Jamaican Court of Appeal becoming the president of that Court in 2016 until his retirement in 2020. He also served on the Appellate Courts in Belize from 2002 for eleven years and as President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Court of Appeal to which office he was appointed in 2021.
Notwithstanding his many areas of legal and judicial service, he found the time to maintain a teaching career as a lecturer and tutor at the Norman Manley Law School where he taught aspiring lawyers from 1977 through to the early 2020s. Through this medium he instilled in law students not only the text of the law but his own love for it and the core principles of ethics and fairness. It is difficult to find another person who has had such a profound impact for good on the professional lives of so many and who has made such a significant contribution to the jurisprudence across the region and beyond.
Justice Morrison will be greatly missed by his colleagues and many friends. The Judiciary extends its sincerest condolences to his family and to all those who mourn his loss.
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