Responsibility of Supervision

In the case of an old man with senile dementia, who caused train accident in his sticking around, the Supreme Court dismissed the demand of compensation by a railway company and denied the responsibility of his family for closely taking care of him. People who had family with the disease must have been relieved by the decision that recognized difficulty of complete supervising. It was an embarrassing result for the railway company that sought payment from family in a hardship.

The man left his home while his daughter-in-law fell in a short asleep on a day in 2007. He was walking without any purpose and hit by a train to death. Japan Central Railway Company, or JR Tokai, filed a lawsuit against his family in want of compensation for financial damage with inability of running the train for a certain period of time. Japanese Civil Code determines that parents or family owe a responsibility of supervise their child or mentally handicapped person.

In the first trial in 2013, Nagoya Regional Court ordered the man’s wife and son to pay ¥7.2 million, with reasoning that both families were responsible for supervising the man’s behavior. The second trial in 2014 found that only the wife was responsible and ordered ¥3.6 million of payment. But, there was a broad argument that even a family was not able to completely watch an old family with senile dementia. The decisions of lower court have been realized to be too cruel to the family.

The decision of the Supreme Court turned down those previous viewpoints. The wife, then age of 85, was also in a situation needing nursery, could not afford to take care of her husband. The son had been living separately with his father for a long time that he could not be responsible. The court decided that spouse, eldest son or adult guardian cannot be automatically responsible for supervising patients of senile dementia.

The decision sounded like a gospel for supporters of old people suffering from senile dementia. “Even experts cannot eliminate accident of the patients. It is important for society as a whole to take risks,” said a member of a non-profitable organization. They realized that the judicial branch understood hard situation for families with the patient.

Railway companies must be disappointed to the conclusion. When such a case happens, the railway company will have to transport passengers in the train, fix the broken trains or pay for additional labor of the employees. If the company takes no action against those accidents, it is possible that the company will be charged by its stockholders. It is necessary for Japanese society that senile dementia is not a problem of each family, but whole society.