NISHIGORI asserted that Tomotane was poisoned and filed a suit against the concerned persons of the SOMA family, and tried to exhume the corpse to prove that was a murder by poisoning.
錦織はこれを毒殺によるものとし、1893年、再び相馬家の関係者を告訴、遺体を発掘して毒殺説を裏付けようとした。