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 Ian Hamilton in 1994 during an argument over a parking bay.

In court yesterday 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.

As a result of the shooting, Hamilton sustained a spinal injury and is a quadriplegic.

In papers before the court 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clinical psychologist, Judora Johanna Spangenberg, for failing to disclose that McArdell was a danger to others, was withdrawn.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 at the Stellenbosch police station to possess a .38 Special Rossi revolver.

This was later recommended.

The commissioner of police issued McArdell with a firearm licence on October 14, 1993.

On August 6, 1994, 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 a result of their negligence.

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.

Ian Hamilton's legal costs are underwritten by Legal Protection Services.