Son wants $180,000 for killing

A psychiatric patient who clubbed his father to death with a baseball bat two weeks after being freed from compulsory care is suing health authorities for $180,000.

If the test case succeeds it will be the first time in New Zealand someone who had killed a person is compensated because of the negligence of another party.

But the Counties Manukau District Health Board is seeking to have the suit struck out, arguing it has no legal basis. It has also applied for a judicial review of the decision by the Legal Services Agency granting the patient legal aid.

Paul Ellis, who alleges the health board was negligent, was released by a judge nine hours into a five-day period of compulsory assessment and treatment despite an initial assessment that Ellis was psychotic and a risk to himself and others.

Ellis asked for a review of the decision to compulsorily detain him. He presented as coherent and the judge released him after taking into account the opinion of a psychiatrist who had not had time to assess Ellis.

Ellis had been admitted to compulsory care at the health board's acute psychiatric unit Ti Aho Mai at 2am on October 12, 2001 at the request of his father, Tony, 68.

In the following fortnight his condition deteriorated. His family contacted health authorities and police on many occasions telling them he was unwell and needed to be re-admitted.

On October 25, 2001, Ellis saw a car registration plate with JMO, which reminded him of Jim Morrison and the song The End, with the lyrics "father I want to kill you". He later said he decided he had to kill his father "to stop all the madness".

Police heard Tony Ellis - who had called 111 - plead with his son to no avail.

Armed police found Ellis standing motionless near where his father lay. Tony Ellis died as a result of massive head injuries.

Ellis was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity after expert witnesses for both the Crown and defence testified that he was insane. The judge, Justice Tony Randerson, said Tony Ellis' death occurred in "tragic and probably wholly unnecessary circumstances".

A Government-sanctioned inquiry into Ellis' medical care by a QC found a catalogue of deficiencies in an underfunded mental health service in perpetual crisis.

Ellis' statement of claim lists many "breaches of duty" which allegedly caused his mental health to deteriorate and led to him being charged with murder.

The claim says Ellis suffered depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in 2002 as his psychosis resolved and he realised the full extent of his actions.

Ellis, who is married with children, has been held at the Mason Clinic in Pt Chevalier since his father's death.

His lawyer, Antonia Fisher, declined to comment.

DHB lawyer Michael Heron said the High Court was being asked to strike the case out because there was "no enforceable duty of care in this situation" and no legal precedent.

The board was challenging Ellis' right to legal aid, which will be defended, arguing it was wrong for one public entity to provide funds to sue another when the Health and Disability Commissioner could order compensation.

additional reporting: Tony Stickley