A restaurant operator has sued Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on behalf of other owners for 50 million baht in compensation for damage to business resulting from ineffective measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Never Ending Summer Co represented 39 restaurant businesses in filing a class-action lawsuit with the Civil Court, the court said in a statement.
The court has set Nov 9 for a hearing to be conducted via Zoom after it examined the petition and request, it added.
Never Ending Summer said in the petition their business suffered from the government’s decision to temporarily close restaurants as part of the measures to fight the virus as the emergency decree failed to bring the situation under control.
“According to the petition, it is asserted that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had declared the nationwide emergency situation under the Covid-19 pandemic and had acted willfully or negligently, resulting in several disease clusters,” the court said.
The vaccination campaign, the management of antigen test kits and drugs to alleviate the coronavirus were conducted in an “insufficient manner”, it added.
The Public Health Ministry, Interior Ministry and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were also named in the filing.
The financial compensation demanded by the group was calculated from March 17 last year.
The date was in conjunction with the early stage of the first outbreak of the disease that has crippled the economy.
Never Ending Summer runs a restaurant in the compound of Jam Factory in Klong San district of Bangkok.
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