Sir Martin James Moore-Bick (born 6 December 1946) is a retired judge of the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Courts of England and Wales#Senior Courts of England and Wales, Senior Courts of England and Wal ...

Early and private life

Moore-Bick was born in Wales, the son of John Ninian Moore-Bick and his wife Kathleen (''née'' Beall).‘MOORE-BICK, Rt Hon. Sir Martin (James)’, Who's Who 2017, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2017; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2016 ; online edn, Nov 201
accessed 29 June 2017
/ref> His younger brother,

John Moore-Bick Major-General John David Moore-Bick CBE, DL (born 10 October 1949) is a former British Army officer who commanded United Kingdom Support Command (Germany). Early and private life Moore-Bick is the son of John Ninian Moore-Bick and his wife Kat ...

, is a retired

major-general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

in the British Army. He was educated at

The Skinners' School The Skinners' School (formally The Skinners' Company's Middle School for Boys and commonly known as Skinners'), is a British Grammar School with academy status for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Established in ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, of which he became an honorary fellow in 2009. Moore-Bick married Tessa Gee in 1974. They have four children: two sons and two daughters.

Legal career

Moore-Bick was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1969, and was elected a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can ...

in 1992, serving as treasurer in 2015. He practised as a barrister from chambers at 3 Essex Court, later 20 Essex Street. His practice was in

commercial law Commercial law, also known as mercantile law or trade law, is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of persons and business engaged in commerce, merchandising, trade, and sales. It is often considered to be a branc ...

and, in particular,

shipping law Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priva ...

. He became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1986 and was appointed a

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

in 1990. He was appointed to the High Court on 2 October 1995, receiving the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

. He was assigned to the

Queen's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

, serving in the Commercial Court. On 7 April 2005, Moore-Bick became a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

, and he was appointed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

on 7 June of that year. In the same year, he was appointed to the role of chairman of the

Legal Services Consultative Panel The Legal Services Consultative Panel is an advisory body of the United Kingdom government tasked with advising the Lord Chancellor on the regulation and training of lawyers and other figures offering legal services. Established by Section 35 of th ...

, serving until 2009. Moore-Bick served as Deputy Head of Civil Justice from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2012. Lord Justice Richards took over this role from 1 January 2013 for an initial three-year period. From 1 October 2014 until his retirement, Moore-Bick was Vice President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal. He took over the role on the retirement of Lord Justice Maurice Kay. Moore-Bick retired from judicial office on 6 December 2016. According to his Chambers' website, on 14 August 2017, "He now accepts appointments as an arbitrator."

Grenfell Tower fire public inquiry

It was announced on 29 June 2017 that Moore-Bick would lead a

public inquiry A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal ...

into the

Grenfell Tower fire On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escapin ...

. On 29 and 30 June it was widely reported that the tenants' solicitor in the case against Westminster City Council had said, after Moore-Bick's ruling, that it gave "the green light for social-cleansing of the poor on a mass scale". The local Labour MP,

Emma Dent Coad Emma Dent Coad (born Margaret Mary Dent, 2 November 1954) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kensington from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a Member of Kensington and Chelsea London B ...

, said on 4 July that year that local people had no confidence in Moore-Bick and that he should stand down. On 25 July, at the second public meeting held by the Inquiry before finalisation of its terms of reference, Moore-Bick faced further calls for his resignation, many residents saying that he did not represent them. In response, Moore-Bick said that he was qualified to lead the investigation, because in his 20 years as a judge, he had looked into "the sort of problems that have to be considered in relation to this fire." He promised that the Inquiry would consider the deregulation of fire safety standards, as well as the multi-million pound refurbishment to Grenfell Tower. "We are going to investigate and find the facts in relation to the whole course of events," he said. The 1,000-page first stage of the report on the Inquiry was formally published on 30 October 2019.

Decided cases

* '' Hall v Woolston Hall Leisure Ltd''

000 Triple zero, Triple Zero, Zero Zero Zero, Triple 0, Triple-0, 000, or 0-0-0 may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * "Triple Zero", a song by AFI (band), AFI from ''Shut Your Mouth and Open Your ...

EWCA Civ 170, illegality principle in employment * ''

Peekay Intermark Ltd v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd Peekay may refer to: * Peekay (''The Power of One''), main character of the novel ''The Power of One'' * ''Peekay'' (film), or ''PK'', 2014 Indian film See also * PK (disambiguation) * Pique (disambiguation) Pique or piqué may refer to: Art ...

'' 006EWCA Civ 386 3supporting a strict signature rule in

English contract law English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries ...

* ''

Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a UK labour law case, concerning wrongful dismissal. Facts Mr Edwards was dismissed from his surgeon job for ‘gross misconduct’ without having his contractual disciplinary procedure followed for alleged impropriety toward a female patien ...

'' 010EWCA Civ 571, supporting a doctor's damages claim * ''

Jivraj v Hashwani is a United Kingdom labour law case concerning the scope of employment. Considering European labour law cases and the purpose of discrimination legislation, it held that it was legitimate to select a person of a particular religion to be an arbi ...

'' 010EWCA Civ 712, upholding an arbitrator's discrimination claim * ''

Shumba v Park Cakes Ltd Goromonzi District is a Districts of Zimbabwe, district of Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe, in southern Africa. It is located in the eastern part of Zimbabwe, and covers an area of approximately . As of the 2012 census it had a population of 2 ...

'' 013EWCA Civ 974

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore-Bick, Martin 1948 births Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge British King's Counsel Knights Bachelor Living people Lords Justices of Appeal Members of the Inner Temple Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at The Skinners' School Queen's Bench Division judges