Condominium residents involved in the quake-safety scandal will soon file a damages suit against disqualified architect Hidetsugu Aneha, the Kawasaki Municipal Government and others for more than 600 million yen in compensation and rebuilding costs, they said Saturday.
It will be the first lawsuit filed by condo residents over the data-fabrication scandal.
The 33 residents from 23 condos in the Grand Stage Kawasakidaishi building in Kawasaki will argue at the Tokyo District Court that Aneha, 49, is responsible for fabricating structural calculation documents for the building and that the city of Kawasaki should be held liable for approving construction of the defective building.
Building inspection agency eHomes Inc. checked the condominium complex, but the city of Kawasaki is responsible for overseeing the inspection work, the residents say.
They will haul a contractor and a design office involved in the construction into court as defendants, they said.
However, they will not file a lawsuit against Huser Ltd., which sold the condominiums, as the company is currently under rehabilitation. Huser President Susumu Ojima has been arrested for allegedly selling a condominium built with fake quake-resistance data.
Aneha was arrested and indicted for abetting an architectural designer in violation of the registered architect law by allowing the designer to use his name as a licensed architect.
He was served with another arrest warrant Thursday on suspicion of giving false testimony to the Diet in December over his involvement in the scandal.
Investigative sources said Aneha admitted during police interrogation he had lied during his Diet appearance, and that the started fabricating data in 1996, not in 1998 as he said under oath.