The Kobe District Court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by residents of Hyogo Prefecture against Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., ruling that the incinerator builder was not responsible for dioxin emissions from a waste disposal facility.
The 12 plaintiffs had demanded that the Tokyo-based Mitsui Engineering pay 370 million yen in compensation -- part of the construction costs -- to the operator of the facility. The company built two incinerators run by five towns in the Shiso area.
It is the first ruling on a case in which a maker's responsibility for dioxin emissions from a garbage incineration facility was raised.
The plaintiffs said that because of structural defects, the Mitsui incinerators spewed more dioxin than any other incinerator in Japan.