The same period was marred by mutiny in judicial ranks. Judges revolted against the supposed authority of the Chief Justice. The result was a lengthy standoff as ugly as the spectacle itself. When the former President left office, the acrimony appeared to have in part, subsided.
The mutinous judges had been beaten into line and lay prostate at the feet of a triumphant Chief Justice in terminal days of his judicial career. Conversely, the departing President left with a bloody nose, having suffered defeat at the hands of a territorial Law Society jealous of judicial independence.