On 16 December, Judge Ryosuke Takahashi of the Fukuoka District Court ruled in favor of Japan Rail Kyushu and ordered a Higashi Ward resident to pay 1.3 million yen (US$13,000) to compensate for damages brought about his near daily urination routine over the course of six months.
According to the trial, from February until August of last year the man would pass through Chihaya Station in the morning of almost every weekday. While there he would ride the elevator connecting the platform to the ticket gates and proceed to relieve himself on the door and floor in front of him.
The reason for this is a mystery. A while back we wrote about the habit of peeing in the shower, and some people admitted doing it once or twice but after it would develop into a habit that became difficult to control. Perhaps this man also fell into the habit of peeing in the Chihaya Station elevator every time he set foot in there.
Near the end, the defendant’s daily pee party had resulted in widespread corrosion of the elevator and it needed a major servicing and replacement that cost JR Kyushu 1.21 million ($12,000). In addition to parts, the door and floor of the elevator needed to be replaced.
In a surprisingly ballsy move, the defendant admitted to his urination habit but challenged JR Kyushu on the grounds that the related construction work done by JR could have been cheaper had they reused material (that he had peed on several times) from the elevator repairs.
In the end, Judge Takahashi disagreed and ordered that the defendant pay the full amount. Apparently the judge was convinced that the extent of golden corrosion was such that “the entire set of components needed replacement and nothing could have been reused.”
What’s most impressive was the defendant’s ability to get it all out in a single elevator ride presumably including pants-operating time. I don’t think I could even get it started under the pressure of such tight time constraints.
Source: MSN Sankei News (Japanese)
Image: Fukurou Dasoku
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