The Fukui District Court on Wednesday ordered a former president of Kumagai Gumi Co. to pay 28 million yen in damages for endorsing the struggling contractor's political donations to the Liberal Democratic Party while the firm was effectively in the red.
Presiding Judge Takuo Ohara ruled that donations between 1998 and 2000 were extended without sufficient screening and then President Yoshio Matsumoto failed to meet his obligation as a board member to make cautious decisions.
According to lawyers for the plaintiff, Kazuyoshi Yuoka, this is the first case in which an ailing firm that made political donations was found to have thus acted illegally.
Yuoka, a shareholder in the firm and a member of an ombudsman group, had sought a total of 87 million yen in damages from four past presidents of the construction firm.