The Kaohsiung District Court on Tuesday ruled that the Armaments Bureau and three defendants were equally responsible for a landslide caused by an excavation seeking buried Japanese treasure on Shoushan (壽山).
Acting on a legend that the Japanese army buried riches on the mountain in Kaohsiung, a group in January 2018 applied to the National Property Administration to dig near Cianguang Temple (千光寺) in Gushan District (鼓山).
The contractors allegedly told neighboring residents that they were working on a drainage project, the court said.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
However, the true purpose of the project came to light after heavy rains caused a large portion of the hill to collapse, threatening nearby homes, it said.
City counselors demanded an end to the project, saying that rumors of buried treasure on Shoushan were “fundamentally false, and even if they were true, it would have been found long ago.”
The bureau immediately stopped the dig and sued the three people, seeking NT$980,000.
The defendants told the court that they acted within the parameters of the approved plan.
They also said that the bureau, which manages the area, should be held responsible for the landslide, as it was the result of long-term neglect.
The court found that the volume of backfill returned to the site exceeded the planned excavation volume, proving that the defendants excavated more than they should have under their application.
It also found that the defendants did not set up proper temporary drainage facilities, which prevented rainwater from draining fast enough and led to the landslide.
However, the court also determined that the bureau should assume partial responsibility, as it should have monitored backfill and restoration procedures.
Instead, the bureau never sent personnel to inspect the site, it said.
Therefore, the court ordered that the bureau and the defendants split responsibility evenly, with the three defendants to pay the bureau NT$490,000, or half of the damages sought.
The ruling can be appealed.
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