Ronald Potter loses legal fight with Gympie council over mental health injury

A former Gympie council senior staffer, who was in charge of disaster management during three major floods, has lost his latest attempt at securing compensation over psychological injury claims.

Former Gympie Regional Council disaster manager Ronald Potter has lost the latest round in his fight for compensation over mental health injuries he claims were caused by the organisation. The Supreme Court found the council cpould not have resonably foreseen he would sufer the injuries and did not breach its duty of care.

A former Gympie council, manager who accused the organisation of causing his severe depression and psychotic symptoms, has lost his fight to overturn his initial loss in the courts.

Ronald Potter had claimed the council failed its duty of care in how it handled bad feedback against him from a 2013 staff survey, and subsequent investigation into serious misconduct claims against him.

He had been a member of the council since 2008.

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Mr Potter received the internal feedback after the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Gympie floods, during which he served as both the local laws co-ordinator and the local disaster co-ordinator.

During a subsequent performance review in 2014 he was suspended for three weeks on full pay over allegations of serious misconduct.

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Ronald Potter was the disaster manager during the 2011, 2012 and 2013 floods, after which he received negative internal feedback.

These included an accusation he tried to “blackmail” a member of his team by threatening the release confidential information.

He was exonerated of the worst allegation by an independent investigation, but was found to have engaged in lessor misconduct by making “inappropriate and reckless jokes” about the same team member.

Mr Potter suffered a medical episode in 2015 and was admitted to hospital.

He then claimed he suffered immense stress from the investigation and subsequent suspension could not return to work, and pursued the council for compensation through the courts.

The Queensland Supreme Court rejected this claim in March, 2022.

Justice Sue Brown said in her published ruling, psychiatric experts said Mr Potter’s injury “stemmed” from the suspension but found the council could have reasonably foreseen he would suffer it.

Ronald Potter was suspended with full pay amid serious misconduct allegations in 2014, but was subsequently cleared by an independent investigation.

Mr Potter appealed the decision, claiming Justice Brown erred in her findings around the council’s duty of care, the foreseeable risk of his injury, and that there were no breaches of the duty of care.

Justice Peter Flanagan rejected this in December, saying Justice Brown was right in her findings.

Mr Flanagan said in his published ruling it was within the council’s discretion as to how it handled the allegations against Mr Potter.

“The exercise of the contractual right to suspend was made by the CEO of a local council in circumstances where serious allegations had been made … concerning the disclosure of confidential information,” Mr Flanagan said.

Nor had Justice Brown erred, Mr Flanagan said, when she concluded the suspension had an impact on Mr Potter “but was only one of the stressors”.

Mr Flanagan said Mr Potter was “shocked by the actual allegations” with one medical expert under saying under cross-examination Mr Potter had “personality traits which made him more sensitive to criticism” and “perceived the allegations against him as a personal attack”.

“As noted at Judgment, [602] (the expert) had previously considered that the appellant’s psychiatric condition was caused by his difficulty coping with interactions with his superiors at work, whom he complained were treating him unfairly and withholding from him information about allegations against him,” Mr Flanagan said.