元同級生２人の賠償確定　大津中２いじめ自殺―最高裁

　大津市で２０１１年、中学２年の男子生徒＝当時（１３）＝が自殺したのはいじめが原因だとして、遺族が元同級生らに損害賠償を求めた訴訟で、最高裁第１小法廷（小池裕裁判長）は２５日までに、遺族側の上告を退ける決定をした。２１日付。いじめと自殺の因果関係を認め、元同級生２人に計約４００万円の支払いを命じた二審判決が確定した。
　一審大津地裁は１９年２月、元同級生３人のうち２人について、暴行などをエスカレートさせ、「生徒に絶望感を形成させた」と指摘。自殺は予見可能だったとし、計約３７５０万円の賠償を命じた。１人は一体となって関与したとまでは言えないとして請求を退けた。
　二審大阪高裁は２０年２月、２人の行為を「生命の安全をも脅かしかねない危険な行為で、いじめ以外の何物でもない」とし、一審同様に自殺との因果関係を認めた。一方、両親の別居や厳格なしつけなど遺族側も生徒を支えられなかったとして、賠償額を大幅に減らした。遺族側が判決を不服として上告していた。
　二審判決によると、２人は１１年９月から、男子生徒に対し、首を踏み付ける▽制汗スプレーを使い切るまで吹き付ける▽手足を緊縛する―などのいじめを繰り返した。生徒は同年１０月１１日、自宅マンションから飛び降り自殺した。
　滋賀県警は元同級生３人を暴行容疑で書類送検するなどし、大津家裁は１４年、２人を保護観察処分、１人を不処分とした。（2021/01/25-14:54）

Japan's Supreme Court has upheld a high court ruling that ordered two former classmates of a boy who killed himself in 2011 at the age of 13 to pay damages totaling some 4 million yen.
   While recognizing that the former classmates' bullying of the victim, then a junior high school second-grader, caused the suicide, the top court's First Petty Bench dismissed an appeal by the boy's relatives for higher damages.
   The finalized ruling was made on Thursday. The amount of damages determined by Osaka High Court in its verdict in February 2020 compared with 37.5 million yen ordered by Otsu District Court in February 2019.
   The district court said it was predictable that the boy, a resident of Otsu, the capital of Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, might commit suicide as escalated violence by the two former classmates caused him to feel "a sense of despair." A different former classmate who was also sued by the relatives was freed from the damages ruling, with the court concluding that the third former classmate was not integrally involved in the bullying.
   The Osaka court said that the two former classmates' acts were so dangerous as to potentially jeopardize the boy's life and surely amounted to bullying, upholding the lower court's recognition that the violence led to the suicide of the victim. But the high court drastically reduced the sum of compensation, determining that the relatives' side failed to support the boy due to the separation of his parents and other circumstances.