Imamura v. Gen. Elec. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 April 2020
• Docket Number: No. 19-1457,19-1457
• Citation: 957 F.3d 98
• Parties: Shinya IMAMURA; Iryo Hojin Nishikai; Iryo Hojin Shadan Imamura Clinic; Kabushiki Kaisha Bellevue Trading; Kabushiki Kaisha Maruhi; Koeki Zaidan Hojin Jinsenkai; Konno Geka Clinic; Akira Konno; Masahiro Yamaguchi; Junko Takahashi, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee, Does 1-100, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

957 F.3d 98

Shinya IMAMURA; Iryo Hojin Nishikai; Iryo Hojin Shadan Imamura Clinic; Kabushiki Kaisha Bellevue Trading; Kabushiki Kaisha Maruhi; Koeki Zaidan Hojin Jinsenkai; Konno Geka Clinic; Akira Konno; Masahiro Yamaguchi; Junko Takahashi, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, Appellants,

v.GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Defendant, Appellee,Does 1-100, Defendants.

No. 19-1457

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

April 24, 2020

Earl M. Forte, Philadelphia, PA, with whom Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC, Timothy P. Frawley, Law Offices of Timothy P. Frawley, Faith R. Greenfield, Camden, NJ, Bonnie L. Dixon and Atsumi & Sakai were on brief, for appellants.

David J. Weiner, with whom Sally L. Pei, Washington, DC, Michael D. Schissel, New York, NY, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, John B. Koss, Boston, MA, and Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo PC were on brief, for appellee.

Before Torruella, Lynch, and Kayatta, Circuit Judges.

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

In 2011, an earthquake-induced tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant ("FNPP") in Japan. The event triggered a series of explosions that caused a tragic nuclear disaster, which destroyed the property and livelihoods of the residents of Fukushima Prefecture and the surrounding area (the "FNPP disaster"). The plaintiffs in this case are four individuals¹ and six business entities² from Fukushima Prefecture (together "Plaintiffs") who suffered property damage and/or economic harm as a result of the FNPP disaster. Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against General Electric Company ("GE") in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts seeking compensatory and punitive damages based on the theory that GE bears at least partial responsibility for the FNPP disaster because it negligently designed the FNPP's nuclear reactors and safety mechanisms, both of which were implicated in the explosions. The district court dismissed the suit under the doctrine of forum non conveniens based on its determination that an adequate alternative forum was available to Plaintiffs in Japan and that dismissal was in both the private and public interest. Plaintiffs dispute the district court's conclusion as to the availability of an adequate alternative forum in Japan, where they maintain there is no avenue for recovery specifically against GE. Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the judicial and administrative compensation schemes that are undisputedly available to Plaintiffs rendered Japan an adequate alternative forum, we affirm.

I. Background

A. Facts of the Case³

1. The FNPP Disaster

In the late 1960s, the Tokyo Electric Power Company ("TEPCO") commissioned the construction of the FNPP in Fukushima, which is located along the eastern seaboard of Japan. TEPCO is the licensed operator of the FNPP. The FNPP contained six boiling water nuclear reactors, all designed by GE. GE constructed three of the reactors itself (Units 1, 2, and 6) and provided the designs and expertise for the remaining reactors (Units 3, 4, and 5), which were constructed by the Japanese companies Toshiba Corporation and Hitachi Limited. GE also designed the rest of the facilities at the FNPP and "participated regularly in the maintenance of the facility over many years."

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake shook Japan and triggered a 45-foot tsunami. When the tsunami struck Japan's eastern shoreline, it flooded the FNPP, disabled its generators, and destroyed the emergency cooling pumps. The resulting lack of power caused the FNPP's cooling systems to malfunction, and as a result, the nuclear reactor cores heated to their melting point and then disabled the valves used to vent the FNPP's radioactive material. Unable to vent, hydrogen gas accumulated in the FNPP's nuclear reactors. Despite TEPCO's and the Japanese authorities' efforts to prevent a catastrophe, four days after the tsunami hit the FNPP, the accumulation of hydrogen gas caused Units 1, 3, and 4 to explode, which released toxic radioactive matter into the surrounding environment. By the time of the first explosion, the Japanese government had evacuated everyone within a twenty-kilometer radius of the power plant.

Fukushima Prefecture suffered unfathomable damage from the nuclear accident. Many of the residents who were evacuated "lost their homes, their jobs, their land, and their children's schools." Much of the area surrounding the FNPP (including some areas beyond the evacuation zone) remains uninhabitable today due to radioactive exposure.

The National Diet of Japan (the Japanese legislature) convened an independent commission, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission ("the Commission"), to investigate the FNPP disaster and to prepare a report about its findings. After 900 hours of hearings and 1,167 interviews, the Commission concluded that the accident "was a disaster ‘Made in Japan’ " and catalogued "a multitude of errors and willful negligence ... by TEPCO, regulators[,] and the [Japanese] government." The Commission also concluded that TEPCO had overlooked new scientific information regarding tsunami risks, failed to implement severe-accident countermeasures consistent with international standards, and generally had inadequate emergency procedures and training.

2. Japan's Compensation Scheme

In 1961, Japan enacted the Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage ("Compensation Act"), which governs the country's liability and compensation schemes for nuclear disasters. In the event of a disaster, the Compensation Act channels all liability for the resulting damages to the operator of the nuclear power plant; therefore, in Japan, TEPCO is the only entity liable for damages arising from the FNPP disaster. Furthermore, because the Compensation Act imposes strict liability on TEPCO, claimants need only prove causation and damages to obtain compensation. Additionally, the Compensation Act fixes a ten-year statute of limitations (set to expire in 2021) and provides no cap on damages against the plant operator.

Victims of the FNPP disaster may pursue compensation through three channels, which are not mutually exclusive: (1) file a lawsuit against TEPCO in the courts of Japan; (2) submit a direct claim to TEPCO; and/or (3) mediate a claim against TEPCO through the Nuclear Damages Dispute Resolution Center ("ADR Center"). As provided in the Compensation Act, in the wake of the FNPP disaster, the Japanese government established the Dispute Reconciliation Committee for Nuclear Damage Compensation (the "Committee") within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. The founding directive of the Committee is to mediate compensation disputes arising from the FNPP disaster and to issue guidelines for assessing claims. The ADR Center is a public mediation service (subordinate to the Committee) overseen by a three-member committee comprised of two independent lawyers and a law professor. It is "tasked with mediating the settlement of claims for compensation brought against TEPCO by those affected by the accident at [the FNPP]."

As of March 30, 2018, victims had filed 440 lawsuits against TEPCO, fifty of which ended with court judgments and 110 of which ended with settlements. Victims may sue in the first instance or after receiving an unsatisfactory settlement offer through one of the other two mechanisms. Lawsuits carry a filing fee of no larger than one percent of a case's value. Although Japan has no class action mechanism for claims arising from a nuclear disaster, multiple plaintiffs may join together in a single lawsuit. In fact, several large groups of evacuees have banded together (either by choice or court-ordered consolidation) to sue TEPCO (often adding Japan as a co-defendant) and have successfully recovered sums totaling up to ¥1 billion.

By the time of the litigation below, over two million victims had filed damages claims directly with TEPCO. TEPCO reviews these claims and calculates compensation awards based on standardized formulas from uniform guidelines, which it devised in accordance with the Committee's Interim Guidelines. Claimants may recover for the loss of property, including the temporary loss of property (in which case compensation is pro-rated for the duration of the evacuation), as well as additional costs, such as the costs of radiation testing. Businesses may also recover for reputational harm and loss of sales.

As of February 1, 2019, claimants had submitted 24,426 claims to the ADR Center for mediation, 23,363 of which had been fully resolved. Of the resolved cases, 18,890 had reached a settlement agreement. There is no filing fee for submitting a claim to the ADR Center, where claimants can proceed pro se or with an attorney. Settlement procedures at the ADR Center are generally conducted in accordance with the Committee's Interim Guidelines, which provide compensation for lost real estate value and damages associated with the interruption of business activities (e.g., reduced sales revenues, reputational harm). Publicly available information about the value of settled claims is sparse due to confidentiality provisions, but the range of settlements varies widely.

In total, as of February 15, 2019, TEPCO had paid out approximately ¥8.721 trillion to individuals and businesses for damages wrought by the FNPP disaster. To ensure the compensation of the victims, the Japanese government has provided TEPCO with critical financial support. The Compensation Act required TEPCO to enter into both a liability contract with an insurance company and an indemnity agreement with the Japanese government. Together, these agreements insured TEPCO up to ¥120 billion. However, the Compensation Act requires the Japanese government to provide operators of nuclear power plants as much aid as is required to compensate for damages in excess of that amount where necessary to realize ...