‘Chebiji Daejang’ Association Head Who Erased Ownership Acquisition List... Supreme Court Rules "Not Breach of Trust"

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-joon] The Supreme Court has ruled that a chairman of an urban development project association erasing the names of ownership acquirers from the Chebiji (land acquired and disposed of or sold to cover urban development project costs) register does not constitute breach of trust.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cheon Dae-yeop) announced on the 9th that it overturned the lower court's ruling, which had suspended a 1.5 million won fine against Mr. A, who was indicted for breach of trust, and remanded the case to the Daegu District Court.

Mr. A was prosecuted on charges of erasing the names of Mr. B and Company C, who were registered as ownership acquirers in the Chebiji register on May 27, 2015, thereby obtaining financial benefits equivalent to the land value appreciation and causing equivalent damage to Mr. B.

The association agreed to pay Company C the Chebiji as a progress payment, and Company C in turn contracted to transfer the Chebiji to Mr. B for 350 million won. Subsequently, Mr. A filed a lawsuit against Company C for the return of funds, claiming that construction costs were excessively paid. During this process, Mr. A erased the names of Company C and Mr. B from the Chebiji register.

The prosecution judged that the act of erasing entries in the Chebiji register constituted a breach of duty by a person handling another's affairs, acquiring financial benefits equivalent to the land value appreciation of an unspecified market price, and causing damage of the same amount to the victim, thus amounting to breach of trust.

The first and second trials found that Mr. A, as the representative of the redevelopment project association, had an obligation to maintain and manage the entries in the Chebiji register so that the names of acquirers would not be arbitrarily erased or changed, and sentenced him to a suspended fine of 1.5 million won.

However, the Supreme Court's judgment differed. It held that registration in the Chebiji register cannot be regarded as a method of public notice of the creditor's claim acquired by the Chebiji transferee before the land readjustment disposition.

The court stated, "The exercise of rights acquired by the transferee under the sales contract is unrelated to whether the Chebiji register is recorded or not," and "Even if the names in the Chebiji register are erased, it cannot be seen that rights are infringed or that there is a risk of financial loss."

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