U.S. Sailors won key court decision to go forward with class action against Tepco, GE, Toshiba and Hitachi etc.

Following up this article.. The US Navy sailors’ complaint refers to Fukushima Diary [URL]

The federal judge, Janis L. Sammartino published the decision to let U.S Navy Sailors go forward with the United States District Court in San Diego against Tepco. Tepco was insisting the court should be in Japan because most of the “witnesses are in Japan”, and “the Japanese government may refuse to disclose crucial information or make witnesses available in a U.S. court”. However the Federal judge concluded it should be in U.S court for the plaintiffs’ “radiation related injuries,” which they claim would prevent them from traveling to Japan at all.  The court also considered “The U.S. also has a strong interest in seeing that members of the Armed Forces are compensated for their service. Especially as it is the V.A. system and the U.S. taxpayers who will ultimately pay for the injuries to Plaintiffs.”

Fukushima Diary was directly informed of this by Paul C. Garner, ESQ., the attorney of the plaintiffs.

By having the court in U.S, the Sailors can go forward with Class Action. Up to 70,000 U.S. citizens were potentially affected by the radiation and will be able to join the class action suit. This “Class Action” is not granted in Japanese court. It can be the major reason why Tepco tried to transfer the case from U.S. to Japan to they can minimize the compensation value.

Additionally, the Court granted TEPCO’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ design defect claim of the nuclear plant, however the court admitted the plaintiffs to add more defendants to consist of General Electric, EBASCO, Toshiba, Hitachi and the builders of Fukushima nuclear reactors.

In the decision, the court agreed with Plaintiffs that their Complaint is not barred by the firefighter’s rule. As alleged, the nuclear accident was independent of the earthquake that summoned the U.S. Navy. Although the Fukushima plant meltdown occurred in part due to the earthquake and tsunami, Plaintiffs allege the ultimate failure of Fukushima plant was a result of TEPCO’s inadequate preparation for a foreseeable natural disaster and negligence in designing and maintaining the FNPP.

The amended pleading shall be filed by 11/18/2014.

Cooper-Order on Motion to Dismiss Sac102814

Cooper-second Tepco Press Release

The post U.S. Sailors won key court decision to go forward with class action against Tepco, GE, Toshiba and Hitachi etc. appeared first on Fukushima Diary.