[/floatl]Yomiuri: Lightning victim wins lawsuitThe Takamatsu High Court on Wednesday ordered a private high school in Kochi and a sports association in Osaka Prefecture to pay compensation of 307 million yen to a 28-year-old man who became disabled after being struck by lightning during a soccer match hosted by the association in 1996. The case represents the first time in the nation that a court has approved compensation over a lightning incident during extracurricular activities. In the suit returned to the high court by the Supreme Court, presiding Judge Masahira Yanobu overturned the lower court ruling and ordered the two parties to pay compensation to the man and his family. According to the ruling, Mitsutoshi Kitamura of Kochi, who was then a first-year student of Tosa High School, was struck by lightning as he participated in the Takatsuki Youth Soccer Summer Festival on Aug. 13, 1996, in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, as a member of the school's soccer team. The lightning strike left Kitamura blind and with only limited use of his limbs. He participated in the tournament sponsored by the Takatsuki Amateur Athletic Association, a foundation based in Osaka Prefecture, accompanied by a teacher from his school. Kitamura and his parents filed the suit in March 1999 with the Kochi District Court, demanding the high school and the association pay a total of about 650 million yen in compensation.
This article doesn't really spell it out but the court's view is that the school and sports association had a duty of care. From 1993-5, there were several similar lightning strikes, and some deaths, which led to a lot of publicity identifying the risks. Under these circumstances, the ruling said the team director ought to have been more alert to the dangers in 1996.
