The highest court in NSW has overturned a $500,000 damages order against the NSW Police Force over the shooting of a Sydney teenager after a violent home invasion, finding that the officer who fired the shot was trying to protect his colleague.
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Justin McMaster is also now facing a substantial legal bill after the court ordered that he pay the police force's legal costs for the original hearing and the appeal.
Mr McMaster was shot in the stomach in the early hours of September 26, 2011, as he ran from his house at Holmes Street, Colyton, in Sydney's west, holding a metal rod taken from a set of blinds.
He had been woken moments earlier by the screams of one of his sisters as two young men forced their way into the house and held a knife to her throat.
Mr McMaster, then 19, burst from the house and ran down the footpath in the direction of a group including police and his relatives in a bid to chase the attackers away.
Believing that the youth was in fact one of the home invaders, Constable John Fanning shot him in the stomach.
In December 2013, District Court Judge Phillip Mahony upheld a civil claim by Mr McMaster, finding that Constable Fanning had committed a "deliberate assault and battery and trespass to his person" and awarded him $512,450.
Mr McMaster's two sisters, who saw the shooting, were awarded $89,910 and $132,430 respectively.
But NSW Police took the matter to the NSW Court of Appeal, arguing that, when the shot was fired, Mr McMaster was just metres from Constable Fanning's colleague, Constable Natasha Kleinman.
On Monday, a three-judge appeal panel upheld this argument, overturning Judge Mahony's decision and the damages awards and finding that the police were not liable for the shooting.
"In my view, Constable Fanning's act in pulling out his service pistol when he first saw the man running out of No. 4 Holmes Street with what looked like a metal pole was reasonable in view of what he understood had occurred in that house, which also suggested that this man may have a knife," Justice Anthony Meagher said.
"From that point, as the man got closer to Constable Kleinman's position on the roadway, he presented, unless stopped, a threat of significant injury.
"This was not a case of a simple assault being resisted by use of a firearm. The threat to Constable Kleinman was believed to be serious injury or worse.
"Constable Fanning waited until the last moment. He did not see any indication that Constable Kleinman was going to use her Taser. At that point, he had no alternative course of action available to prevent the threat to Constable Kleinman, which he reasonably believed the man presented."
In addition the court ordered that Mr McMaster and his sisters pay the police force's legal costs. These are likely to run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
