Court quashes decision by ‘rude, overbearing’ judge

The majority of the full Federal Court said judge Salvatore Vasta’s ‘conduct was intimidatory’.

Federal Circuit Court judge Salvatore Vasta.

A federal judge was “frequently aggressive, rude and overbearing” and interrupted a man’s case so often he denied him a fair hearing.

Federal Circuit Court judge Salvatore Vasta was also found to have threatened the man with contempt of court charges and ­accused him of contempt four times during the hearing “with no apparent justification”.

The self-represented man, ­Michael Gambaro, had been seeking leave to file an amended statement of claim in a case related to the termination of his employment, but this was rejected by Judge Vasta, who ordered security to remove Mr Gambaro during the hearing after a heated courtroom exchange.

The full Federal Court yesterday overturned Judge Vasta’s decision and sent the case back for a fresh hearing by a different judge.

The majority said the judge’s “conduct was intimidatory and made it difficult for Mr Gambaro to properly argue his case”.

Judge Vasta has come under fire in other cases over his courtroom demeanour and recently stepped down from his ­administrative roles.

Two of the three Federal Court judges yesterday said the contempt power should rarely if ever be “exercised to vindicate the personal dignity of judge”.

They said it was impossible to see how Mr Gambaro’s ­occasional interruptions or his mere failure to answer the judge’s questions could amount to conduct that would interfere with the course of justice.

“There was no apparent justification for the threats to charge Mr Gambaro with contempt. The threats should not have been made,” they said.

The ruling comes after the Federal Court found earlier this year that Judge Vasta was “sarcastic, disparaging and dismissive” and ­interrupted a business operator’s case in such an “egregious” way that he denied the man a fair trial when he jailed him for 12 months for contempt of court.

Judge Vasta had in that case imposed a 12-month jail sentence on Queensland business operator Leigh Alan Jorgensen and slapped him with a $85,000 fine.

The full Federal Court found Judge Vasta’s “excessive and unwarranted interventions” in the trial had denied Mr Jorgensen procedural fairness and struck “at the validity and acceptability of the trial and its outcome”.

Yesterday, two of the three Federal Court judges found Judge Vasta’s “excessive judicial interventions” had denied Mr Gam­baro a fair hearing. They said Judge Vasta had not allowed him to complete more than two consecutive sentences and appeared to have “little insight” into the ­effect of his interruptions.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Circuit Court said an extensive health and wellbeing program was available for judges.

“The judge in question has had an extremely heavy workload over the past three years,” the spokesman said.

“In addition, he had the added pressure of holding senior administrative roles within the court for the past 12 months. The judge has agreed to stand down from these roles and is receiving mentoring … to fully assist and support the judge to fulfil his duties.”