The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (the seventh defendant) held the coal mining concession and operated mining in Maemoh. The plaintiffs claimed that the seventh defendant neglected its obligations to comply with the environmental standards enshrined in the EIA and the regulations provided by Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and resulted in damages in life, health and property, and that other defendants neglected their duties to control compliance of the seventh defendant with the environmental standards. The court ruled that some acts of the seventh defendants failed to comply with environmental standards and obliged to rectify its actions, e.g. restore the mining area back to its natural state as possible and resettle local people from the dangerous zone. However, concerning damages to local population, the plaintiffs based their claims on tort under the Civil and Commercial Code, and thus had the duty to prove causation between the act of negligence by the seventh defendant and damages in life and health. Failing to do so, the court ruled that the conduct of the seventh defendant did not constitute tort.