Category: Litigation

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Shareholders including civic groups led by Solidarity for Economic Reform filed a derivative suit at the Seoul Central District Court on May 28 against Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo and vice chairman Kim Dong-jin for the damages of W563.1 billion caused by their embezzlement and breach of fiduciary duty last year.

Before their filing a lawsuit, Chung was convicted in February 2007 of embezzling almost 70 billion won. He was also found guilty of breach of duty by causing losses to the company and affiliates by helping weaker units and selling stock to (more…)

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What do you think the retirement age of a female fashion model is?  Judges of Seoul Central District Court answered, “it is 35 years old”, reported on April 16.

It was the case where a female fashion model, who was 17 then, was died by an accident during shooting illustrated magazine.  It is reported that the model slipped into the sea while trying to pose barefoot at the tip of a dock on an Island.

The model’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the photographer and the magazine for their negligence for failing to prepare safety measures, claiming monetary compensation of 180 million won(180 thousand U.S. dollars).  This amount was based on plaintiffs’ allegation that the model could work until the age of 60.

The court, however, rejected plaintiffs’ allegation and ordered (more…)

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Here is an interesting article.  It addresses interpretation and legal translation services for foreigners in the Korean courtroom. As the number of lawsuits in which foreign nationals are involved is increasing, the interpretation issues are becoming important more and more.

The article said a total of 1,936 criminal trials linked to foreigners were held in 2005.  More than 1,300 criminal cases were handled during the first half of 2007.   The Suwon District Court holds 33 volunteer language specialists in 13 languages (more…)

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The Securities-related Class Action Act: Overview

Korea’s Securities-related Class Action Act(hereinafter the “Act”) has been effective from January 1 2005.  Currently the Act covers all companies whose securities are listed on the Korea Stock Exchange or registered with the Korea Securities Dealers Association.

There are four causes of action under the Act: (i) damages for false information in a securities report or prospectus; (ii) damages for false information in business reports and semi-annual and quarterly reports; (iii) damages for insider trading or price manipulation; and (iv) claims against auditors.

Damages are calculated in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Act(SEA) and other existing laws. For example, under the SEA, damages caused by false information are calculated by the acquisition price minus (i) the market price at the closing of the courtroom arguments, or (ii) if disposed of earlier, the disposition price.  If damages are complex to work out, however, courts may use sampling, averaging, statistical or other rational methods.

In certain cases, the burden of proof of the lack of causal connection between the falsity and damages will fall on the defendant.  Damages will then be reduced by the portion that is proven as unrelated to the cause of action.

Class certification requires (i) at least 50 class members, with the total number of their shares constituting 0.01% of all issued and outstanding shares of the company; (ii) commonality of legal or factual issues; (iii) class action being an efficient and suitable means for protection of rights or interests of all members; and (iv) the complaint being properly drafted and not defective. The representative member should be one will the largest stake and capable of fair and proper representation.

The Act also includes provisions on opt-out and preclusion effect on members who did not opt out, (more…)

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On April 3, Seoul Central District Court ruled that Pandora TV infringed copyright of Japanese animation by letting its members upload unauthorized animation clips onto Pandora TV’s channel(shared folder).  Pandora TV is a famous Korean internet UCC service provider, something like YouTube.  Its members can upload any files they want, so bunch of copyrighted movies, animations, dramas have been uploaded without permission and anyone who visits its web page can view the copyrighted materials, even though he or she is not logged in.

The court addressed that the Pandora TV has recognized copyright infringements of its members and facilitated and induced it by giving “cyber money or coin” to the members who uploaded much more items.  Also the court pointed that Pandora TV has had an advertising revenues from any views.

Also the court ruled that the individual members are held liable for simply making copyrighted materials (more…)

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Today it was reported that 2,078 customers of Auction(the “Company”), the largest on-line shopping mall which has almost 18,000,000 people as its registered users, filed a lawsuit against the Company alleging it accidentally had leaked millions of files containing personal information about its customers.

Previously on February, the Company announced its sever had been hacked by allegedly a Chinese hacker.  However the Company has not cleared up to what extent personal information had been leaked by the accident.  Not satisfied by the Company’s handling, the customers jumped into a lawsuit.  The plaintiffs are seeking 2,000,000won(approximately 2,000 US dollars) per person.

There has been several internet personal information leakage cases.  For example, (more…)

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Recently we got a question from a foreigner.  She was wondering if she could take any legal action against her Korean ex-employee who harassed her by spreading false information about her and telling the customers not to do a business with her.

From a perspective of Korean Criminal law, currently there is no general legislation on regulating the harassment or stalking.  The respective laws have its own regulations on which behavior constitutes a certain crime and what remedies the harassed party is entitled to seek.

Generally speaking, a person who defamed another by publicly alleging facts (false or even true) shall be punished by imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor for not more than 2 years or by a fine not exceeding five million won according to Criminal Act of South Korea.

Notably, any person who sends out letters or text messages inflicting fear or apprehension to another person repeatedly shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 1 year or (more…)

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Recently we got a question about the definition of “sexual harassment” under Korean law.

Article 3-4 of The Framework Act on Women’s Development defines a “Sexual Harassment” as “sexual comments and behaviors incurring sexual mortification and repugnance, or giving disadvantages in employment for not accepting sexual advances or other request, on the part of employees in public sector, employers, or workers, using their status or job position related to jobs or employment relations, etc.”.

In order to be liable for a sexual harassment, the person does not necessarily have to have a sexual motive or intent. It can be inferred and proved by totality of situation such as the relationship with the person, place and circumstance of the behavior, content of the clear and referred response of the behavior, content and degree of the act, whether the act is ephemeral or short-timed or continual. There must be an act that provokes sexual mortification and repugnance to an average person who are in the similar situation generally, and from that the average person should feel the sexual mortification and repugnance. Therefore, a sexual harassment can not be established not merely for the reason that counterpart felt sexual mortification and repugnance (more…)

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According to article 5 of the Private International Act(“PIA”) of Korea, a court shall investigate and apply the contents of the foreign law designated by the PIA on its own initiative. However, sometimes it’s not easy for Korean court to confirm the right meaning and contents of foreign laws.

In this regard, the Supreme Court of South Korea has ruled as follows, in a case where the both parties had different interpretation of relevant Polish laws in deciding who’s the real owner of a ship registered in Poland(2006da5130):

“In confirming the content and interpreting the meaning of foreign laws and regulations to be applied to legal relations having foreign elements, the interpretation and application shall be made in accordance with the meaning and the content through which the foreign law is actually interpreted in the home country, and the judgment by the highest court of the home country, unless under special circumstances, shall be respected, but if it is impossible to confirm the content because of the insufficiency in submitted data in the process of a suit about (more…)

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A Korean cosmetics Company filed a lawsuit against its model, Ivy, a K-pop female singer, alleging her lies and scandal-plagued private life has damaged its brand images.

The cosmetics company had hired Ivy as its advertisement model last April, but after then, Ivy got a scandal with her ex-boyfriend who allegedly had attempted to blackmail her with a revealing video clip showing him with the K-pop star. Ivy has stopped her career until now and the cosmetics company claims it constitutes a breach of contract under which Ivy is required not to harm the image of the company or its brand with any scandalous or improper behavior. You can read the news article here.

There was a similar case between a top T.V star Choi, Jin-Sil, and its advertiser. The company claimed that (more…)