Court: "State Must Provide Additional Payment for Sewol Ferry Rescue Company's Maritime Rescue Costs"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has determined that the government must pay additional compensation after underestimating the costs incurred by a private company involved in search and rescue operations immediately following the Sewol ferry disaster.

According to the legal community on the 13th, the Administrative Division 3 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge Hwanwoo Yoo) partially ruled in favor of private diving company A in a lawsuit against the state claiming expenses related to disaster relief. The court ordered the government to pay company A approximately 170 million KRW.

Company A, which specializes in underwater construction and equipment rental, was mobilized for search and rescue operations from April to July 2014 following the Sewol ferry accident. They claimed to have spent a total of 1.14 billion KRW and submitted this amount to the Coast Guard. However, the Coast Guard recognized and paid a lower amount than the estimates submitted by the participating companies, and after distributing the funds received, company A was allocated only 210 million KRW. Consequently, in November 2017, company A filed an administrative lawsuit against the government demanding payment of 940 million KRW, which is the difference between the actual expenses and the amount already paid.

The court ruled in favor of company A, stating, "It is difficult to deny the existence of the order solely because the plaintiff did not receive a written disaster relief work order." Although company A did not receive an official document, the fact that the company’s representative was directly instructed by the Coast Guard to participate in rescue operations on the day of the Sewol accident and appeared at the Mokpo Coast Guard situation room was a key basis for the judgment. However, the court recognized the rental fee for the two vessels deployed by company A as 4 million KRW per day, contrary to the company’s claim of 8 million KRW per day, and also judged that the labor costs were excessively estimated by company A, ultimately approving only about 19% of the claimed amount.

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