Gwangju City Wins Consecutive Administrative Lawsuits on Waterworks

Formation of a Dedicated Task Force
Enhancing Trust in Administration

Gwangju City is conducting a "Water Supply Cause-Based Charge and Water Service Construction Cost Calculation Service" to promote the revision of ordinances and notices reflecting the key issues of lawsuits, following the successive administrative lawsuits related to the water supply cause-based charge and water service construction costs. The photo shows the recent mid-term report meeting of the service held in Gwangju City. Photo by Gwangju City

Gwangju City has consecutively won lawsuits related to waterworks administration.

According to the city on the 20th, the 1st Administrative Division of the Gwangju District Court (Presiding Judge Park Sanghyun) recently ruled in favor of the Gwangju Waterworks Business Headquarters by dismissing the claims of a local housing association A and construction company B, who had each filed lawsuits seeking the cancellation of water supply construction fee imposition.

The court stated, "Gwangju City revised the public notice to ensure fairness among those obligated to pay water supply construction fees, and the resulting administrative actions complied with the principles of non-retroactivity and proportionality, making them all legitimate."

The plaintiffs argued that applying the revised public notice after the obligation to pay the water supply construction fee had already been established violated the principle of non-retroactivity, and that the flat-rate water supply construction fee system violated the principle of proportionality due to the significant difference from the actual construction costs.

However, the court found that the public notice on water supply construction fees applied by Gwangju City in these cases did not violate the principle of non-retroactivity, as it applied the new regulations to ongoing fee imposition requirements. The court also ruled that the flat-rate fee system did not violate the principle of proportionality, as it included provisions to reduce the per-household construction fee according to the increase in the number of households, thereby ensuring fairness in cost sharing. Furthermore, the court noted that some discrepancy between the actual construction cost and the flat-rate fee is inevitable, considering the purpose of introducing the flat-rate system.

This ruling marks the seventh consecutive victory since September of last year, once again recognizing the active litigation response of the administrative authority in court.

The city formed a "Litigation Task Force for Cost-Bearing Lawsuits" centered around the head of the Waterworks Business Headquarters, and made systematic and proactive efforts in litigation, including cooperation with related agencies and legal consultation.

Kim Ilyung, head of the Gwangju Waterworks Business Headquarters, stated, "By forming a dedicated litigation team and responding proactively to administrative lawsuits, we have recently achieved a series of favorable rulings, which has enhanced the credibility of our waterworks administration. We plan to continue actively responding by thoroughly analyzing the issues raised in these lawsuits and revising relevant ordinances during the first half of this year."

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