A Japanese court overturned a US$92 billion damages verdict yesterday against the former bosses of the operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, thought to be the largest such award ever in the country for a civil suit.
Four former executives had in 2022 been ordered to collectively pay ￥13.3 trillion in a suit brought by shareholders over the nuclear disaster triggered by a massive tsunami in 2011.
However, the verdict was thrown out yesterday by the Tokyo High Court, a spokeswoman for the institution said.
Photo: AP
Shareholders had argued the catastrophe could have been prevented if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) bosses had listened to research and implemented preventative measures like placing an emergency power source on higher ground.
However, the defendants countered that the risks were unpredictable, and the studies cited were not credible.
“The defendants ... cannot be found to have had this foreseeability at a point in time before the earthquake in question,” yesterday’s court ruling said.
The ￥13.3 trillion damages award was believed to be the largest amount ever ordered in a civil suit in Japan.
It was meant to cover TEPCO’s costs for dismantling reactors, compensating affected residents and cleaning up contamination.
In 2015, British oil giant BP was ordered to pay US$20.8 billion for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in what was described at the time as the highest fine ever imposed on a company in the US.
The court spokeswoman said an appeal by the shareholders for an even higher damages order of ￥22 trillion had been denied.
Hiroyuki Kawai, head of the plaintiffs legal team, issued a stark warning at a news conference yesterday.
“If I were to summarize today’s ruling in one phrase: it is a ruling that will lead to future serious nuclear accidents,” he said.
TEPCO declined to comment on the High Court verdict.
Three of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant’s six reactors were operating when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a massive tsunami on March 11, 2011.
They went into meltdown after their cooling systems failed when waves flooded backup generators, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Overall, the tsunami along Japan’s northeast coast left about 18,500 people dead or missing.
In March, Japan’s top court said it had finalized the acquittal of two former TEPCO executives charged with professional negligence over the Fukushima meltdown.
The decision concluded the only criminal trial to arise from the plant’s 2011 accident.
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