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THE MINISTER of Police will have to cough up damages for loss of support suffered by a Northern Cape widow and her two daughters following the alleged wrongful death of her husband in police custody due to a heart attack.
According to the plaintiffs, the deceased, a diabetic - “had a duty to support them, which, but for the allegedly wrongful death, the deceased would have fulfilled”.
According to the plaintiffs, the deceased was arrested for being drunk in public on February 14, 2014, after he was allegedly found lying next to the driver’s side of his motor vehicle in the town of Springbok in the Northern Cape.
According to the widow and her daughters, the deceased man was arrested by two police officers without any steps being taken to establish his medical condition or steps to ensure the appropriate medical treatment was administered.
Further to this and related to the arrest, the plaintiffs said the deceased was in “diabetic shock” at the time. After being handed back his personal effects and his vehicle, the widow said she could see her husband’s yellow pills “strewn about” in the vehicle.
The defendant pleaded “no knowledge” to all of these allegations.
According to the women, at 7pm, while in a holding cell and when a police officer checked up on the deceased, “frothy blood vomit came from the deceased’s mouth”.
The man was then taken to the local hospital at 12.20am on February 15, 2014, “wearing only a khaki short, no shirt and no shoes”.
The defendant denied these allegations as well.
The judgment read: “The medico-legal post-mortem report came to hand on 25 March 2014 and revealed that the deceased sustained multiple blunt traumas to his face and trunk, multiple fractured ribs, numerous petechial haemorrhages of the intra-thoracic organs and severe lowering of his blood glucose. The defendant pleaded ‘no knowledge’ to these allegations.”
The plaintiffs alleged that the deceased’s death “was the direct result of the intentional conduct, omissions, and negligence of the named members as well as other police members of the Springbok police station”.
The defendant submitted in evidence that they had found the deceased lying next to his vehicle at a bus stop in Springbok and by the time he had been taken to hospital for medical treatment, he was unconscious and in a hypoglycaemic condition.
During the trial and after expert evidence was heard, the medical experts who had testified held a conference and filed a joint minute.
“All these medical experts agreed that the deceased’s cause of death was not as set out in the post-mortem report. All the medical experts agreed that there were several factors, a cascade of events, that ultimately led to the fatal heart attack where the deceased could not be revived,” the judgment read.
Judge Lawrence Lever in his judgment said: “Having regard to the manner in which the defendant conducted his case, I believe the other requirements to establish a delictual claim for loss of support have been conceded. In any event, I have considered those requirements and find that the plaintiffs have indeed established the elements required to establish a delictual claim for loss of support and the defendant is liable for such damages.”