Bongeunsa Temple Wins Final Lawsuit Against the State for Over 40 Billion Won Compensation for Gangnam Land

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] Bong-eunsa Temple, which lost land in the Gangnam area of Seoul due to false document creation by public officials during the farmland reform project, has won a final lawsuit against the state and will receive compensation worth 40 billion KRW.

According to the legal community on the 30th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Heung-gu) recently finalized the ruling by dismissing the appeal without review, upholding the lower court's decision in favor of Bong-eunsa Temple in the damages lawsuit filed against the state by the Jogye Order's Bong-eunsa Temple.

Bong-eunsa Temple filed a damages lawsuit against the state in 2019 regarding approximately 748 pyeong of land in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, which was not returned during the farmland reform process.

During the farmland reform, the government purchased land to be used as farmland and distributed it for a fee to cultivators. Land that was not distributed was supposed to be returned to the original owners. However, two public officials forged documents to register the land that should have been returned to Bong-eunsa Temple as owned by a third party. Although they were convicted of falsifying official documents, the land was not returned to its rightful owner, Bong-eunsa Temple.

As a result, Bong-eunsa Temple filed a lawsuit but ultimately lost in January 2015 due to the statute of limitations, as a long time had passed since the ownership had transferred. Subsequently, the temple filed a damages lawsuit against the state.

The first and second trials ruled that the government must compensate Bong-eunsa Temple for damages caused by the illegal acts of its public officials. However, considering that Bong-eunsa Temple did not verify the ownership restoration for a long period and that the government did not gain any benefit from the land disposal, the government's liability was limited to 60%.

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