Tokyo, 29 June, /AJMEDIA/
A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered the Tochigi prefectural government and a high school athletic federation to pay 290 million yen ($2 million) in damages to the families of five people killed in an avalanche during a mountaineering course in March 2017.
Three instructors responsible for delivering the course were also defendants in the lawsuit, which sought 385 million yen, but the Utsunomiya District Court dismissed the claims against them.
In dismissing the claims against the three, Presiding Judge Chikako Asaoka cited the State Redress Law, which states damages claims against public servants should be shouldered by municipalities.
In acknowledging the prefectural government’s responsibility, she said, “It would have been possible to predict an avalanche by checking the weather report (that morning), but the lesson was not canceled.”
More than 40 people were caught in the avalanche near a ski resort in the town of Nasu on March 27, 2017, that killed seven students and a teacher from a high school who were there for a mountaineering class.
The prefectural government admitted to negligence but was in dispute over the amount of damages to be awarded.
The three instructors — one who was in the headquarters at the time of the incident and two who accompanied the students — claimed they could not have predicted the avalanche.
They denied responsibility under the law, which also stipulates municipalities can request that public servants pay damages if intent or gross negligence is proven.
The lawsuit was filed by the families of four of the students and the teacher who died.
According to the plaintiffs, the defendants committed “gross negligence” in beginning mountaineering training without adequate survival equipment and failing to conduct snow stability tests to assess the likelihood of an avalanche.
While the damages suit against the instructors was dismissed, they have been indicted without arrest and are currently being tried separately for professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
