Blocking Someone Else's Parking Spot for a Year... Supreme Court Rules "Not Assault"

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that blocking access by parking a vehicle at someone else's house entrance cannot be considered assault as a means of coercion.

On the 16th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jae-hyung) overturned the previous ruling that sentenced Mr. A, who was indicted for coercion, to a fine of 2 million won, acquitting him and remanding the case to the Seoul Central District Court.

Mr. A, the owner of a 'U'-shaped road in a residential area in Seocho-gu, Seoul, demanded that residents around his road purchase shares of the road. When they refused, from April 2016 to March 2017, he parked his car in front of resident Mr. B's house gate and did not move it.

The lower courts regarded Mr. A's actions as assault. The court ruled, "Such parking behavior restricts the victim's freedom to decide and execute the operation of their vehicle," and "It constitutes the use of physical force against the victim, which is a means of assault under the crime of coercion."

However, the Supreme Court's judgment differed. The court stated, "To evaluate indirect use of physical force against a person as assault under coercion, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the defendant's intent and method of applying physical force, the proximity between the act and the victim, and the relationship between the object on which the force was applied and the victim," and pointed out, "It is difficult to see that the victim was assaulted to obstruct the exercise of vehicle operation rights."

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