News Item
Date 2nd May 2002
Quadriplegic sues state for R18,9m
May 02 2002 at 09:45PM
By Fatima Schroeder
A 31-year-old quadriplegic man is suing the Minister of Safety and Security for R18,93-million, after the ministry issued a firearm licence to a woman he claims was mentally unfit.
The woman, Erna Lochiel McArdell, shot him in 1994 during an argument over a parking bay.
In court on Thursday Suzette McKerron, a psychologist who had treated McArdell between July 1991 and June 1992, told the court of several outbursts her patient had during and after she had received treatment.
In papers before the court Ian Hamilton claims that from the middle of 1992 McArdell was a "paranoid psychotic" with a personality disorder.
She had received psychological counselling and therapy from several mental health professionals and had been certified several times for admission to Stikland Hospital in Bellville.
A claim against her clinical psychologist, Judora Johanna Spangenberg, for failing to disclose that McArdell was a danger to others, was withdrawn.
According to the court papers, on September 29, 1993, McArdell applied for a licence to possess a .38 Special Rossi revolver at the Stellenbosch police station, which was subsequently recommended.
The commissioner of police issued McArdell with a licence on October 14, 1993.
On August 6, 1994, at East Lynne Flats in Stellenbosch, McArdell then shot Hamilton with the revolver.
He now claims that she was neither competent nor fit to possess the firearm due to her mental condition and because, before the shooting incident, she had "committed and threatened to commit acts of violence in the Stellenbosch area".
Hamilton claims that the minister's "servants" and the commissioner should have investigated McArdell's application before issuing her with a firearm licence and he further claims he was shot as result of their negligence.
As a result of the shooting, Hamilton sustained a spinal injury and is a quadriplegic.
His R18,93m claim comprises past and future hospital and medical expenses, mechanical aids and devices, costs of motor vehicle modifications, costs of temporary alterations to his home, costs of employing an attendant, past and future loss of earnings and general damages for shock, pain, suffering, disfigurement and disability.
But the minister denied that he, the commissioner or his staff were negligent or that Hamilton was shot by McArdell as a result of their negligence.
In court on Thursday, McKerron told the court she had "lost her nerve" when she worked with McArdell and became very distressed.
Some of the incidents McKerron detailed to the court included McArdell leaving messages "of an aggressive nature" on her answering machine, McArdell standing over her in a threatening stance, and McArdell breaking the windows at Stellenbosch hospital using her fists.
McKerron also told the court about an incident in which she refused to give McArdell R10 and was accused of being a "white, fascist pig" who refused to lend money to a "poor beggar".
It was after this event that McKerron stopped consultations with McArdell.
Once, McArdell showed up at her home and insisted on seeing McKerron.
But McKerron refused as she had stopped consultations with her.
She attempted to calm McArdell down and then left with friends.
Later that evening, McKerron's daughter called to say there had been a shooting at home.
The hearing continues.
Ian Hamilton's legal costs are underwritten by Legal Protection Services.