Former NHL player Kevin Miller ordered to pay $1.1 million for career ending hit

Back on October 31, 2000,former NHL player Kevin Miller landed a hit on Canadian hockey player Andrew McKim in a game in Switzerland. The hit eventually ended the career of McKim and will cost Miller $1.1 million. Miller previously refused to pay the fine.

A federal judge upheld a Swiss court's judgement against Miller after Allianz Suisse Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, a Swiss insurance company that covered McKim, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to enforce the judgment it obtained in Switzerland in 2010.

Miller played for HC Davos in the Switzerland National Hockey League. During the game against the ZSC Lions, he hit McKim from behind, a check that resulted in a five-minute penalty and a playing-time disciplinary penalty. McKim fell forward on the ice which resulted in a concussion and other injuries.

On Dec. 10, 2004, the prosecutor’s office of the Canton of Zurich charged Miller with malicious simple bodily injury and grievous bodily injury. The trial, at which Miller testified, began the following August.

“Miller admitted that he checked McKim, injuring him ‘at least lightly,’ but denied his actions resulted in the serious injuries that McKim sustained when he hit his head on the ice,”U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist wrote in his 17-page opinion.

“In concluding that Miller was responsible for the damages resulting from the ‘check,’ the judge observed that Miller must have recognized that he could not have made a legal body check on McKim, that Miller had sufficient time to avoid the improper contact with McKim, and that Miller must have known of the risk that he could inflict serious injury on McKim with contact from behind.”

Keep in mind McKim was not the one that filed suit. It was the Swiss insurance company that wanted to recover the costs paid out to McKim.