"MERS Delayed Response Responsibility Lies with Ministry of Health, Not Samsung Hospital"

Second Trial Also Plaintiff Victory "Damage Payment"

Seoul Central District Court / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] During the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015, Samsung Seoul Hospital won the second trial of the administrative fine imposition lawsuit it filed, criticizing the government's delayed response.

According to the court on the 30th, the Seoul High Court Administrative Division 5 (Chief Judge Kwangguk Bae) dismissed the defendant's appeal in the appeal trial of the lawsuit filed by the Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation, which operates Samsung Seoul Hospital, against the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The court ruled to cancel the fine of 8.06 million KRW and order the payment of 60.7 billion KRW in compensation for damages, as in the first trial. The court pointed out, "The Ministry of Health and Welfare was significantly at fault for entering the entire list of contacts it received into the regional health information system late and leaving it unattended."

This lawsuit arose when epidemiologists from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested the contact list and contact information of patient number 14 from Samsung Seoul Hospital in May 2015, early in the MERS outbreak, but the hospital submitted only the list of 117 close contacts on the 31st of the same month. Patient number 14 was called a "super spreader" as the MERS outbreak spread nationwide. At that time, the Ministry of Health and Welfare imposed a fine of 8.06 million KRW on the hospital for the late submission of the list and did not compensate the hospital at all for the 60.7 billion KRW in damages caused by medical paralysis. Samsung Seoul Hospital filed a lawsuit requesting the cancellation of both the fine imposition and the refusal to pay compensation for damages.

In the first trial, it was judged that although the late notification of the contact list of patient number 14 influenced the spread of the disease, the hospital did not intentionally refuse or obstruct the epidemiological investigation. The second trial court also found no "intent" by Samsung Seoul Hospital to obstruct the epidemiological investigation. Furthermore, it recognized that the Ministry of Health and Welfare's mistake was one of the causes of the MERS outbreak. The court stated, "It is difficult to deny the possibility that the infection could have been prevented if the Ministry of Health and Welfare had immediately taken appropriate measures for the contacts upon receiving the list."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.