VANCOUVER - A man who smashed another man's head in with a golf club, leaving him brain damaged and disabled has been ordered to pay almost $3.2 million in damages.
Steven Saether sued Robert Irvine after confrontation in Maple Ridge, B.C. in July, 2001.
Irvine hit Saether in the head with the club, crushing his skull and leaving the then 26-year-old man brain damaged and unable to walk.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled the consequences of the assault have left the young man unemployable, and more than one third of the award is for loss of future earning capacity.
The judge also awarded special damages and costs for future care, for a total of $3.198 million.
Williams said in his ruling that the brief episode of bad judgment and bad fortune gave way to enormously tragic circumstances for Saether that forever changed him in a devastating way.
