KITAKYUSHU (Kyodo) The Fukuoka District Court turned down Tuesday a ¥120 million damages suit that claimed a building inspection agency overlooked the falsification of quake-resistance data for a Kitakyushu hotel.
The court's Kokura branch said it has found no breach of duty on the part of Tokyo-based inspection agency Japan ERI Co. in the evaluation and inspection of Arc Inn Kurosaki, rejecting the claims by a Kitakyushu real estate company.
Data for the hotel were fabricated by the now-disqualified architect Hidetsugu Aneha.
Presiding Judge Makoto Aoki said Japan ERI "used the government-authorized calculation software program to evaluate the building's structural data, and no recalculation was required under the then building standards law."
"No breach of duty can be found on the part of the defendant, who had confirmed several key points in structural calculation sheets," Aoki said.
Japan ERI issued a building certification in October 2004 after evaluating the design and structural calculation sheets of Arc Inn Kurosaki.
The hotel was closed in November 2005 after it was found to be vulnerable to major temblors. It reopened in April 2006 following reinforcement work.
Aneha has been convicted of fabricating the structural data of a number of buildingsl The Tokyo District Court sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of ¥1.8 million in December 2006.