Reeves v State of New South Wales [2010] NSWSC 611

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Reeves v State of New South Wales [2010] NSWSC 611 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S) : 29 March 2010, 30 March 2010, 31 March 2010, 1 April 2010, 6 April 2010, 7 April 2010, 8 April 2010, 9 April 2010, 12 April 2010, 13 April 2010, 15 April 2010, 16 April 2010

JUDGMENT DATE : 23 June 2010

JUDGMENT OF : Schmidt J

CATCHWORDS : TORTS - negligence - duty of care - police officers - reasonable foreseeability of risk of psychiatric injury - failure to monitor psychological condition after a long career - plaintiff placed in stressful situations - assigning plaintiff a welfare role and duties at the Fraud Enforcement Agency for which he was not trained - failure to provide support in relation to welfare assistance provided to other officers during the Police Royal Commission - role and duties in a Police Service investigation of a Royal Commission witness resulted in adverse attention by Royal Commission and plaintiff's integrity being called into question - failure to support plaintiff after being adversely named in the Royal Commission - failure to ensure no exposure to harassment as a result - failure to ensure relevant and sufficient information provided to the Police Board - failure to provide debriefing or counselling after plaintiff was threatened by a gun and twice stabbed with a syringe in May 1998, or during the ensuing months of testing - failure to provide support once aware of plaintiff's psychological condition - failure to provide rehabilitation to allow plaintiff to remain employed in the Police Service - contributory negligence - whether plaintiff failed to take sufficient care for his own mental, emotional and/or behavioural welfare - whether plaintiff failed to monitor his own mental, emotional and/or behavioural status - whether plaintiff failed to seek timely and proper help from the defendant, or any other competent medical practitioner, for any mental, emotional and/or behavioural problems that he may have been experiencing - whether plaintiff failed to take proper and timely advantage of the services of the defendant's chaplaincy, peer support officers, welfare branch and/or psychology unit that were available to him - whether plaintiff failed to seek counselling in a timely matter - whether plaintiff failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent suffering psychological and/or psychiatric injury - contributory negligence not found - DAMAGES - measure and remoteness of damages in actions for tort - personal injuries - method of assessment - economic loss - loss of earnings and earning capacity - psychological injury is now entrenched - plaintiff's working life brought to an end - general damages awarded - damage awarded for past and future economic and other losses, calculated to retirement at age 65 - POLICE - internal administration - whether Police Service Rehabilitation policy applied - workers compensation - section 11A of the Workers Compensation Act 1987 - contributor to Police Service Superannuation Fund - Police Regulation (Superannuation) Act 1906 - policy applied - POLICE - tribunals and other authorities - Police Royal Commission - PROCEDURE - leave sought to further amend pleadings - no prejudice - leave granted - DEFAMATION - Intersection between the claimed duty and the law of defamation - no intersection between duty to provide accurate information about how plaintiff came to attention of Royal Commission and law of defamation