Former Southern Suburbs halfback Ritchie James Lowe’s workplace injury claim dismissed

A Cairns footballer described as “one of the best” in the league has had his workers compensation claim thrown out of court after his finger was amputated following a workplace accident in Ipswich.

Ritchie Lowe was working at a slaughterhouse in South East Queensland when the injury happened. Picture: Brian Cassey

A Cairns footballer described as “one of the best” in the league has had his workers compensation claim thrown out of court after his finger was amputated following a workplace accident.

Ritchie James Edward Lowe, 23 at the time, was working at a Greenmountain Group slaughterhouse in Ipswich in 2019, when he cut his finger using a bandsaw.

The former North Ipswich Tiger and Cairns Southern Suburbs Rugby League player had his finger partially amputated as a result.

Hearings were held in Ipswich District Court in August of 2022 after Mr Lowe submitted a workers compensation claim seeking more than $500,000 in past and future economic loss.

The court heard Mr Lowe had been working for the company for less than a month when he was operating an unguarded bandsaw to cut pieces of cattle and calf carcasses when his finger came into contact with the blade, partially amputating his right index finger.

Before using the fixed open saw blade, Mr Lowe was trained and signed off as competent.

The court heard Mr Lowe, after his recovery, was later cleared by a doctor to return to work but he was still experiencing pain and difficulty working.

RLI Norths v Redbank Plains. Norths' Ritchie Lowe.

In his summary Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said Mr Lowe’s treating orthopaedic surgeon certified him as fit to return to his usual employment from September 3, 2019 but he did not return to Greenmountain.

“For reasons which remain unsatisfactorily explained, he did not do so. He did, however, subsequently take up much more remunerative employment.”

The court heard Mr Lowe could handle large items but had difficulty with smaller grip exercises such as grasping a bar.

He did however start playing A grade rugby league in Cairns.

The court heard despite his injury Mr Lowe was “one of the best” players in the league.

But during cross examination the halfback did not agree, saying he had to adjust his game and he could not do weight training.

Judge Horneman-Wren highlighted a part of the submissions towards future loss of earnings in which Mr Lowe was incorrectly referred to as female and a student.

“Given that the plaintiff is male and not female, that there is no evidence of him

studying for any qualification nor of any role commensurate with any qualification,

it would appear that this part of the of the submission is an artefact from submissions

prepared for some other case part of which has been copied and pasted into the

submissions for this case,” he said.

Judge Horneman-Wren said the claim was “entirely unmaintainable on the evidence” citing his return to other more highly remunerative work and his demonstrated footballing ability as a playmaker repeatedly using his injured finger.

“The plaintiff has failed to prove any breaches of duty which he alleges,” he said.

“Not all workplace incidents and the resultant injuries can be sheeted home to an employer’s negligence.”

The claim was dismissed.

Originally published as Former Southern Suburbs halfback Ritchie James Lowe’s workplace injury claim dismissed