Court Dismisses SoCar's Appeal in BMW 520d Defect Fire Compensation Case

BMW 520d completely burned down by fire. This photo is unrelated to the content of the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Socar appealed against the first-instance ruling that recognized only partial responsibility of Deutsch Motors for the fire that occurred in BMW vehicles, but the appeal was rejected.

The 10-1 Civil Appeal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Yoo-sung Kim) overturned the first-instance ruling and ruled against the plaintiff in the damages lawsuit filed by the car-sharing company Socar against Deutsch Motors, the Korean distributor of BMW, on the 8th. The court stated, "The part of the first-instance ruling where the defendant was held liable is canceled, and the plaintiff's claim corresponding to that part is dismissed."

Previously, Socar had purchased about 40 BMW 520d vehicles from Deutsch Motors and rented them to customers. However, around April to May 2018, two of these vehicles were completely destroyed by fire. At that time, fire incidents occurred consecutively not only in the BMW 520d vehicles purchased by Socar but also in the same model vehicles bought by general consumers. According to the joint public-private investigation team of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the cause of the fire was found to be a design defect and system error in the vehicle's Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve. Based on these investigation results, Socar filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against Deutsch Motors and BMW Korea seeking compensation of 74 million KRW.

The first-instance court recognized Deutsch Motors' liability only for 33 million KRW, corresponding to the market value of one vehicle, out of the amount claimed by Socar. The claim for the other vehicle was dismissed due to lack of evidence. The court did not recognize liability for BMW Korea, stating, "There is no evidence to acknowledge that the defendant manufactured the vehicle."

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