Such a verdict is not common or precedented.. yet; it tells about the extent of the Legal Liability of the Professionals.. Also; it tells that the Company doesn't not indemnify its staff; when it comes to major accidents..
Similar to Hospitals; which usually step away from the Surgeons who would be charges for wrongdoings or neglections..
Employers will be responsible to provide and facilitate the adequate performance of the Executives; by admin or technical support; avoiding interventions in their technical decisions and operational choices..
Addressing both Liabilities and Risks is critical for the Corporates structure and performance..
Therefore, call are their for Senior Managers to attend courses on Civil Law..!
A Tokyo court has ruled that former directors of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) must pay compensation for the losses of the Fukushima plant, as the company's shareholders have demanded.
Shareholders claimed that the company suffered heavy losses from the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
he losses include the costs of decommissioning the faulty reactors at the plant and compensation for local residents who were forced to evacuate.
Shareholders claimed more than $160 billion from five individuals who held management positions.
The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered four of them to pay a total of nearly $97 billion.
The trial focused on the credibility of a long-term assessment of potential seismic activities issued by a government commission in 2002, nine years before the accident.
Shareholders claimed that the assessment was reliable and that managers should have done more to protect the plant from the huge tsunami they knew was coming.
On the other hand, previous managers claimed that the assessment was of low credibility so they could not have foreseen the damage caused by a massive tsunami.
They argued that even if they did, they would not have enough time to take the necessary precautions.
https://interestingengineering.com/fukushima-nuclear-former-bosses-pay-97-billion?fbclid=IwAR1f609_jOyGpIIeAiTNYDJf3Ir9Kbaffatwu7fb3kEn4Au5YSdDEkr0P1M
A district court in Tokyo has ordered former executives at the Fukushima nuclear plant to pay 13.32 trillion yen (US$ 97 billion) as damages to the shareholders for failing to prevent the disaster in 2011, TechXplore reported.
Three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were operating when an undersea earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami on March 11, 2011. Water from the waves flooded the backup generators at the powerplant, which failed the reactors' cooling system, resulting in a meltdown. Although the meltdown didn't claim any lives, around 12 percent of the area in Fukushima was declared a no-go zone.
In 2019, a court acquitted former officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) from criminal proceedings. However, 48 shareholders at the company filed a civil suit in 2012 against five former executives seeking compensation of 22 trillion yen (US$ 160 billion), local media outlet, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
The shareholder lawsuit
The shareholders filed the lawsuit against five top-level executives, former chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, former President Masataka Shimizu, two former vice presidents, Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto, and former managing executive officer, Akio Komori.
The plaintiffs had argued that the disaster could have been averted had the former executives followed research findings and carried out preventive measures such as placing the emergency power source on higher ground. The defendants, however, said that the research studies were not credible and the risks unpredictable.
A district court held four out of the five former executives guilty and ordered them to pay 13.321 trillion yen ($97 billion) as compensation. In its ruling, the court said that nuclear plant operators have "an obligation to prevent severe accidents based on the latest scientific and expert engineering knowledge," and the executives failed to heed credible warnings. Komori, who was also director of the Fukushima plant at the time of the accident, has been absolved from paying compensation.
Welcoming the judgment, the plaintiffs said in a statement, "Nuclear power plants can cause irreparable damage to human lives and the environment."
"Executives for firms that operate such nuclear plants bear enormous responsibility, which cannot compare with that of other companies."
How will the compensation be paid, and to whom?
The lawsuit is designed so that the compensation, the highest in Japan's judicial history, is paid to the TEPCO itself. The money is intended to help cover the costs of dismantling the reactors, cleaning up contamination, and compensating affected residents of the region.
"We realize that 13 trillion yen is well beyond their capacity to pay," said Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "You may have to sell your house. You may have to spend your retirement years in misery" while adding that the plaintiffs will contribute as much as their assets allowed them to. "In Japan, nothing can be resolved and no progress can be made without assigning personal responsibility," he added.
The former executives were also facing up to five years in prison for professional negligence. However, the court ruled that the scale of the disaster caused by the tsunami could not have been predicted.
TEPCO is currently engaged in the decommissioning of the reactors, which is a time-consuming and cost-intensive process than can run into decades.
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