Court rules IBM Japan to pay 4.1 billion yen to Suruga Bank in a systems contract row (OBN)

(Tokyo, OBN) A seven-year-long civil lawsuit case between the Suruga Bank (Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan) and IBM Japan (Tokyo, Japan) over systems development contract concluded on Wednesday with a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the plaintiff, which initially demanded a total of approximately 11.6 billion yen in damages, according to Jiji Press (Japanese only).

On March 29, 2012, the Tokyo District Court first ruled that a total amount of 7.41 billion be rewarded to Suruga. IBM Japan appealed with a counter claim of approximately 12.5 billion yen in damages, but the Tokyo High Court ruled against the claim and instead rewarded 4.1 billion yen in primary damages plus delayed damages to the plaintiff on September 26, 2013.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, however, both parties applied for an immediate appeal. On July 8, 2015 the Supreme Court rejected the application for appeal from both parties, thereby upholding the High Court's second ruling that IBM has violated its Project Management duties.

However, by doing so the Court also upheld the second ruling that the violation only occured after the final agreement was concluded between the two companies and not during the proposal and desigining phase of the project as was initially contended in the first ruling of the case.

The seven-year-long case was first initiated by the Suruga Bank when its system development project with IBM Japan collapsed in April 2007. Suruga filed its claim against IBM Japan in February 2008, holding IBM responsible for its failure in the development project and demanding  compensation for damages, according to the Bank's press release. (Japanese only)