Relatives of 3 killed in curry-poisoning incident sue Hayashi.

WAKAYAMA, Japan, March 11 Kyodo

Relatives of three people killed in the 1998 curry-poisoning incident filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a total of 30 million yen in compensation from Masumi Hayashi, who was found guilty last December and sentenced to death for lacing a curry stew with arsenic.

According to the suit filed with the Wakayama District Court, the families of Takatoshi Taninaka, who died at 64, Takaaki Tanaka, 53, and Miyuki Torii, 16, are each claiming 10 million yen in damages, saying the mental suffering they have experienced from the case is ''beyond all description.''

Four people were killed and 63 others became ill after eating the curry stew laced with arsenic on July 25, 1998 at a summer festival in the Sonobe district of Wakayama, the capital of Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan.

''What they are aiming for is not money. They have filed the suit because they feel frustrated,'' Mitsuo Otani, the lawyer representing the three families, quoted his clients as saying.

Hayashi, 41, a former insurance saleswoman, has appealed the December ruling to a higher court.

In 1999, 38 victims of the incident filed a suit against Hayashi seeking a total of 107.5 million yen in damages, but the bereaved families did not take part in it.

Relatives of the fourth person who died, Hirotaka Hayashi, 10, did not join in the latest suit, as they had lodged a separate damages suit at the district court against a hospital in the city for failing to treat the boy properly after he was rushed there.

The district court dismissed the suit last December, and the family has appealed to the Osaka High Court.