The Sendai District Court turned down a damages suit Monday filed by relatives of two of three nursery children in the town of Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, who were killed by the giant tsunami spawned by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake off the coast of Tohoku.

The plaintiffs sought some ¥88 million in damages from the town, claiming staff members at a city-run nursery failed to take proper safety measures to protect the kids and made improper decisions to stay there instead of evacuate.

It was the first judicial ruling to be handed down regarding civil servants' administrative responsibilities for instructions issued during the disasters.