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Death to cost MMC just ¥5.5 million The Yokohama District Court on April 18 rejected demands that Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and the government pay ¥100 million in punitive damages for MMC's failure to fix a known truck defect that caused a woman's death, and only ordered the firm to pay ¥5.5 million for the loss of life. The court was ruling on a ¥165 million damages suit -- ¥65 million in compensation and ¥100 in punitive damages -- against Mitsubishi Motors and the government. It ordered the truck maker to only pay ¥5.5 million to the mother of 29-year-old Shiho Okamoto, who was killed when she was struck by a wheel that flew off an MMC truck. Okamoto's two children were also hurt. Although the three-judge panel ruled that MMC was "extremely heinous" for knowing about the defect for such a long time but neglecting to fix it, they said, "Imposition of punitive damages, aimed at punishing an offender, is not congruous to our country's legal system."
The Japan Times Weekly: April 22, 2006 |
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