{{Short description|New Zealand lawyer (1958–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Honourable |name = Simon France |image = |alt = |caption = |office = Judge of the Court of Appeal |term_start = 26 August 2022 |term_end = 28 February 2023 |office1 = Judge of the High Court |term_start1 = 19 January 2005 |term_end1 = 26 August 2022 |birth_name = Simon Peter France |birth_date = {{Birth date|1958|05|29|df=y}} |birth_place = Wellington, New Zealand |death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|04|08|1958|05|29|df=y}} |death_place = Wellington, New Zealand |spouse = {{marriage|Ellen France|1981}} |alma_mater = {{ubl|University of Auckland|Queen's University}} }} '''Simon Peter France''' (29 May 1958 – 8 April 2023) was a New Zealand lawyer and jurist. He was a judge of the High Court from 2005 until 2022, and the Court of Appeal from 2022 until his death.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/131731201/court-of-appeal-judge-simon-france-dies |title=Court of Appeal judge Simon France dies |date=11 April 2023 |work=Stuff |access-date=11 April 2023}}</ref><ref name="Winkelmann">{{cite web |url=https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/media-releases/2023/20230411-CJ-statement-the-Hon-Simon-France.pdf |title=Chief Justice pays tribute to Simon France |first=Helen |last=Winkelmann |author-link=Helen Winkelmann |date=11 April 2023 |publisher=Ngā Kōti o Aotearoa Courts of New Zealand |access-date=13 April 2023}}</ref>
==Early life and family== Born in Wellington on 29 May 1958, France was the youngest of five children.<ref name="humble"/> He grew up in Whangārei and was educated at Pompallier Catholic College, where he was head prefect and dux in 1975.<ref name="humble">{{cite news |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131766290/obituary-judge-who-oversaw-nzs-most-controversial-trials-was-humble-and-humane |first=Mike |last=White |title=Obituary: Judge who oversaw NZ's most controversial trials was humble and humane |work=Dominion Post |date=15 April 2023 |access-date=15 April 2023}}</ref> He went on to earn a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Auckland in 1979.<ref name="Winkelmann"/>
In January 1981, France married Ellen Larkin, who he had met during his first year at law school in Auckland, and they both then undertook postgraduate studies in Canada, at Queen's University at Kingston.<ref name="humble"/> France completed a Master of Laws degree there in 1983.<ref name="Winkelmann"/>
==Academic and judge== On his return to New Zealand in 1984, France became a law lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington.<ref name="humble" /> In 1995, he joined the Crown Law Office as a senior appellate lawyer.<ref name="humble" /> He was appointed as a judge of the High Court on 19 January 2005 and remained with the High Court in Wellington until 2022. During that time he was the judge who presided over several complicated and high-profile criminal cases, including the trial of Ewen Macdonald for the murder of Scott Guy in 2012, and the 2015 retrial of Mark Lundy for the Lundy murders.<ref name="humble"/><ref>Notably, ''R v Foreman HC Napier'' CRI-2006-041-001363, 27 May 2008; ''New Zealand Police v Ewen Kerry MacDonald'' [2012] NZHC 2388; ''R v Lundy'' [2015] NZHC 542; R v X [2021] NZHC 2444.</ref> He was appointed to the Court of Appeal on 26 August 2022 and retired from that court on 28 February 2023 because of ill-health.<ref name="Winkelmann"/> Fellow High Court judge, Sir Ron Young, has stated that, in court, France's intellect was evident as he coped with extremely complex issues, interpreting abstruse evidence and arcane legal principles for juries of laypeople but that he was also compassionate with those appearing before him as defendants or witnesses. Young said that "[France] was just damn bright".<ref name="humble" /> France was a "devout Roman Catholic".<ref name="humble" />
==Tandem careers== France's wife, Ellen France, is a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.<ref name="Winkelmann"/> After meeting during their first year at the University of Auckland law school, and both doing postgraduate study in Canada, they worked together in the Crown Law Office.<ref name="humble" /><ref name="DP profile">{{cite news|last1=Thomas|first1=Rachel|title= Damehoods for Karen Sewell QSO and Justice Ellen France |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/80700015/Damehoods-for-Karen-Sewell-QSO-and-Justice-Ellen-France|accessdate=6 June 2016|work=The Dominion Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/128835506/appealing-a-court-decision-chances-are-it-will-go-before-a-france |title= Appealing a court decision chances are it will go before a France |publisher= Stuff/Fairfax |date=18 June 2022}}</ref> Ellen France, was appointed to the High Court in 2002 and in 2006 appointed to the Court of Appeal (to which her husband was appointed 16 years later). She was president of the Court of Appeal for two years before her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2016.
==Death== France died in Wellington on 8 April 2023, at the age of 64.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://deaths.dompost.co.nz/nz/obituaries/dominion-post-nz/name/simon-france-obituary?id=51600668 |title=Simon France death notice |date=11 April 2023 |work=Dominion Post |access-date=17 April 2023}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:France, Simon}} Category:1958 births Category:2023 deaths Category:20th-century Roman Catholics Category:21st-century Roman Catholics Category:People from Whangārei Category:People educated at Pompallier Catholic College Category:Queen's University at Kingston alumni Category:University of Auckland alumni Category:20th-century New Zealand lawyers Category:21st-century New Zealand lawyers Category:Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington Category:High Court of New Zealand judges Category:Court of Appeal of New Zealand judges Category:New Zealand Roman Catholics