Ramon Alberga, ‘Father’ of Cayman Bar, dies aged 95

(CNS): One of the Cayman Islands’ legal heavyweights has died. Ramon Alberga QC, known as the Father of the Cayman Islands Bar due to his long and esteemed legal career, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 95 after more than seven decades working in the legal profession. Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale, in a public statement about his loss on behalf of the local judiciary, said his contribution to the development of jurisprudence in Cayman cannot be overstated.

Alberga was called to the English Bar in Middle Temple in February 1951 and later to the Jamaican Bar. He first appeared in the Cayman Islands Grand Court in 1964 and moved here with his family in 1976. In the early 1980s, while he was president of the Cayman Islands Law Society, he played a leading role in the establishment of the Cayman Islands Law Reports.

The first volume of the Reports was published in 1987. Many of the judgments dating back to 1952 and before, which appeared in the early volumes of the Reports, came from Alberga’s own private collection. Alberga served as consulting editor of the reports from the beginning until 2020, when he finally retired from that job after some 40 years.

Speaking about the great respect the legal profession here has for Alberga’s career, the chief justice noticed that in 2011, on the 60th anniversary of his being called to the Bar, his portrait was mounted in the foyer of the courthouse.

“He was the first attorney and only non-judge to be afforded this honour. This is reflective of the level of respect and the regard in which he is held. It was and will always be said of him that he fulfilled his duty as an officer of the Court in every sense of the word,” Ramsay-Hale said. “Mr Alberga will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

Sincere condolences were extended by the chief justice and the entire judiciary to his family and friends.