Japan's high court overturns earlier ruling in Fukushima Daiichi damages suit
The Tokyo High Court has overturned a lower court ruling and has dismissed a claim by plaintiffs for former Tokyo Electric Power Company executives to pay damages to the utility over the 2011 nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
The ruling handed down on Friday does not hold the defendants liable.
TEPCO shareholders had filed the lawsuit against five people who were in top managerial posts at the company at the time of the accident that followed a powerful quake and tsunami in March 2011.
The plaintiffs said the accident occurred because of poor safety measures at the plant. They demanded that the defendants pay damages to TEPCO worth over 23 trillion yen, or about 160 billion dollars, to cover the costs the company incurred in compensating local residents who had to evacuate, decommissioning the plant and conducting decontamination efforts.
Earlier in 2022, the Tokyo District Court ordered four of the defendants to pay the utility a total of 13.3 trillion yen, or about 92 billion dollars, in compensation. The amount of damages is believed to be the highest ever ordered by a court in Japan.
Both the plaintiffs and the defendants appealed the ruling.
At issue was a long-term assessment of possible seismic activities issued by a government panel in 2002. The lower court ruling said the assessment was found scientifically reliable. The presiding judge said the assessment made it obligatory for the company's managers to take measures against tsunami.
The Tokyo High Court Presiding Judge Kino Toshikazu said on Friday that while the nuclear plant operator should have respected the assessment, it cannot necessarily be judged that the operator had been legally liable to take anti-tsunami measures.
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