The Japanese Red Cross Society was slapped Tuesday with a court order to pay 2 million yen to the parents of a teenage girl who was among four people murdered in a 1998 festival food poisoning.
Miyuki Torii of the city of Wakayama was 16 when she died after eating curry rice laced with arsenic at a summer festival July 25, 1998.
She was brought to the Japanese Red Cross Wakayama Medical Center after she fell ill.
The Wakayama District Court ruled that Torii's doctor had erred in judging and treating the girl when she was brought in for emergency treatment.
The lawsuit also involved Takatoshi Taninaka, 64, who likewise became sick after eating the curry and died the following day.
Their families were seeking a combined 60 million yen in damages from the city of Wakayama and the Red Cross for what they claimed were mistakes in treatment at the Red Cross facility and a municipal hospital where Taninaka was taken.
Two other people died in the poisoning and more than 60 people were sickened.