The Supreme Court on Monday nullified lower court rulings that rejected damages for a 25-year-old man who was left physically disabled after being hit by lightning during a high school soccer match in 1996 amid an approaching typhoon and ordered a high court retrial.</PARAGRAPH>
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<TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Mitsutoshi Kitamura, who was left physically disabled after being struck by
lightning during a high school soccer match, appears with his parents –
and other supporters outside the Supreme Court in Tokyo.
The top court ordered the Takamatsu High Court in Kagawa Prefecture, which had handed down the second rejection, to hold the retrial, saying the dangers of taking to the pitch on a day when a thunderstorm advisory was in effect were foreseeable.
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