A final ruling in a 119-million-baht lawsuit against a lead-separation company for poisoning a natural water source in Kanchanaburi 13 years ago was postponed on Tuesday after the provincial court found a defendant had yet to pay a court fee.
The suit, filed by eight Karen villagers, named Lead Concentrate (Thailand) Co as first defendant and its owner, Kongsak Kleebbua, as second defendant.
The court postponed the reading to June 21 on the grounds that it could not announce a Supreme Court ruling in the case unless Mr Kongsak would settle a 200,000-baht court fee, said Somchai Armeen, a member of the Lawyers Council of Thailand.
In 2012, the Appeal Court said it agreed with the Kanchanaburi Provincial Court, which ruled that the lead-mining firm was responsible for polluting the Klity Creek in Lower Klity village in Thong Pha Phum district. It ordered the defendants to pay 29.5 million baht to the victims, on top of the 4.2 million baht set out by the lower court in 2010.
The company and Mr Kongsak then filed separate appeals against the appellate court decision, but only the former paid the fee, said Mr Somchai.
Mr Somchai, who is on the LCT's environment committee, believed Mr Kongsak would still have not paid the fee before June 21 in order to delay reading of the judgment. Technically, this would lead to the provincial court sending the final ruling back to the Supreme Court and it would have to wait and see on how to proceed.
The Karen villagers from Klity Creek trekked for two days to hear the court hearing, but will have to return in two months. (Post Today photo)