Top Court Backs Ruling Finding Miyagi City Responsible for Tsunami Death
June 1, 2018
Tokyo- Japan's Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling finding the Higashimatsushima city government in Miyagi Prefecture responsible for the death of a municipal elementary school girl in the March 2011 tsunami.
Effective Wednesday, the Supreme Court's Second Petty Bench turned down the appeal by the city against the Sendai High Court ruling in 2017 that backed Sendai District Court's 2016 order for the city to pay some 26 million yen in damages to the bereaved family of the then nine-year-old pupil at Nobiru Elementary School.
Tsuneyuki Yamamoto, presiding justice of the petty bench, judged that the school's principal should be held responsible for handing the girl over to someone other than her parents.
It is the first time for the top court to finalize a ruling in favor of a bereaved family in a lawsuit related to the tsunami unleashed by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, which devastated coastal regions of northeastern Japan prefectures including Miyagi, people familiar with the matter said.
In its ruling, the high court said it was impermissible for the school to allow someone who was not a preregistered guardian to take the student her home.
It also backed the conclusion by the district court in the Miyagi prefectural capital that the girl's mishap was foreseeable because the city's hazard map was showing that she had to pass through tsunami flood areas on her way back home.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the family of its 86-year-old member who was among evacuees at the school gymnasium and died when the tsunami hit there.
Seeking compensation from the city, the bereaved family claimed that the school had failed to give a proper evacuation instruction. Jiji Press
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