Cape Town - Western Cape High Court Judge Ashley Binns-Ward has thrown out a special plea by the police minister in a long running case in which a cleaner at Merweville police station in the Karoo was shot by a police officer in July 2012.
Marius Minnies had claimed damages in respect of injuries he suffered in a shooting incident when he was employed as a cleaner at the police station.
Minnies had sought to be compensated under the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (Coida), after he was shot by officer Heinrich Ayshlie, the first defendant, who was handling his service pistol at the time.
Ayshlie testified that he had been checking his firearm with a view to making it safe when a shot accidentally went off injuring Minnies. The bullet struck Minnies in the head and as a result he lost his left eye.
Judge Binns-Ward said: “As the member of the Cabinet responsible for the police service, the second defendant (Police Minister) has been sued on the grounds of his alleged vicarious liability for the wrongful conduct of the first defendant.
“The police minister delivered a special plea in which he contended that the proceedings by the plaintiff against him were precluded by virtue of the provisions of Coida. He also denied any liability in common law for the plaintiff’s damages,” said Judge Binns-Ward.
“Counsel on both sides correctly agreed that the validity of the police minister’s special plea turns on whether the injuries sustained by the plaintiff fall to be characterised as an occupational injury as defined in Coida; and that by virtue thereof, the kernel of the enquiry is whether what happened was an accident within the meaning of the act.”
In his ruling Judge Binns-Ward said: “I do not think that the definition of accident renders the adjective occupational in the term occupational injury redundant. On the contrary, the defined meaning of ‘accident’ is incidental to, and thus in a sense subordinate to, the term occupational injury.”
“The special plea is therefore dismissed with costs,” said Judge Binns-Ward.
Cape Argus