The Amagasaki branch of the Kobe District Court dismissed on Tuesday a suit filed by the mother of a man killed by the collapse of the Hanshin Expressway during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, seeking 92 million yen in compensation from the expressway operator.
Presiding Judge Yasukazu Watanabe, the fifth judge to preside over the 1997 suit, dismissed Michiko Yorozu's claim that the highway collapsed because Hanshin Expressway Public Corp. failed to build piers of sufficient strength for the elevated expressway.
Lawyers for Yorozu, 79, indicated they will appeal the ruling to a higher court.