TOKYO —

The Supreme Court said Friday no trial exemption for a U.S. state government will be admitted in a lawsuit filed by a fired Japanese employee at the state’s now-closed port authority office in Tokyo. Presiding Justice Hironobu Takesaki of the top court’s second petty bench dismissed a Tokyo High Court ruling in favor of the trial exemption and remanded the case to that high court.
   
The Tokyo District Court in May 2006 did not exempt the state of Georgia from trial in Japan and found its dismissal of the employee illegal. But the high court overturned the ruling in October 2007, acknowledging that the U.S. state government is exempt from Japanese jurisdiction. The suit was lodged by a woman who, according to the lower court rulings, was hired by the Tokyo office of the Georgia Ports Authority in 1995 but fired in September 2000 after the U.S. state closed the office on June 30 that year for financial reasons.
   
In July 2006, the top court revised a 1928 precedent exempting a foreign government in principle from Japanese jurisdiction, saying jurisdiction shall not be exempted for acts related to private law or business management unless there are special circumstances such as an exercise of jurisdiction violating the sovereignty of a foreign state.
   
The top court said in Thursday’s decision that it does not see ‘‘special circumstances’’ in the latest case.
 

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2 Comments

• 

  NagoyaGaijin at 11:13 AM JST - 17th October

  Wait...The lady is suing because she lost her job when the office CLOSED??? THAT is kinda ridiculous, is it not?

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  Yelnats at 01:56 PM JST - 19th October

  This woman is brain dead.

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