慰謝料増額、７億円賠償命令　原発避難、初の高裁判決―仙台

　東京電力福島第１原発事故で避難を余儀なくされ、故郷を奪われたとして、福島県の双葉、楢葉両町などの住民２１６人が、東電に慰謝料を求めた訴訟の控訴審判決が１２日、仙台高裁であった。小林久起裁判長は慰謝料額を一審より増額し、計約７億３４００万円の支払いを命じた。原発避難をめぐり全国で約３０件起こされた集団訴訟で、高裁判決は初めて。
　２０１８年３月の福島地裁いわき支部判決は、国の中間指針に基づき東電側が算定した額を上回る慰謝料を認め、２１３人に総額約６億１０００万円を支払うよう命じた。住民側は控訴し、計約１８億８０００万円を上積みするよう求めていた。
　一審は東電の責任について判断しなかったが、小林裁判長は、政府機関が０２年に発表した地震予測の「長期評価」に基づき、東電は津波が起きる可能性を認識していたのに対策を先送りにしていたと認定。「東電の対応の不十分さは痛恨の極みで、慰謝料の算定に当たって重要な考慮事情とすべきだ」と述べた。
　その上で、避難生活の苦痛とふるさとを喪失した慰謝料を区別して算定。帰還困難区域の原告については一審を維持し、居住制限区域などの原告に１００万円、緊急時避難準備区域の原告に５０万円の慰謝料を追加で認めた。（2020/03/12-19:05）

Sendai High Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. on Thursday to pay 734 million yen in damages to 216 people who were forced to evacuate following the triple meltdown at TEPCO's disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant in March 2011.
   The ruling is the first by a high court among the roughly 30 class action lawsuits filed around the country seeking damages for evacuation from one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
   In March 2018, the Iwaki branch of Fukushima District Court ordered TEPCO to pay damages totaling some 610 million yen, higher than the compensation offered by the company based on estimates under government-set standards.
   But the plaintiffs, mainly evacuees from towns of Futaba and Naraha in Fukushima Prefecture, appealed the lower court decision, demanding an additional 1,880 million yen.
   Hisaki Kobayashi, the judge presiding over the high court lawsuit, newly determined that TEPCO failed to take measures to protect the nuclear power plant from massive tsunami although it had already acknowledged the possibility of the occurrence of tidal waves as high as ones that struck the plant on March 11, 2011, based on long-term earthquake predictions released by a government research body in 2002.