[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has been issued calculating the compensation amount for a man who became disabled due to medical malpractice during surgery, based on the evaluation criteria set by the Korean Medical Association instead of the traditional American standard.
The Civil Appeals Division 4 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Jonggwang Lee) announced on the 25th that it partially ruled in favor of plaintiff Mr. A in the appeal trial of the compensation lawsuit filed against the hospital. The compensation amount was recognized as approximately 68.64 million KRW, including 15 million KRW for consolation damages. This is nearly 10 million KRW less than the first trial compensation amount of approximately 77.25 million KRW. The difference in compensation amount originated from the standard used to calculate the 'loss of labor capacity rate.' The loss of labor capacity rate is a ratio that quantifies the degree of labor capacity lost due to sequelae and is one of the key indicators in determining compensation amounts.
In the first trial ruling delivered in 2018, the sequelae caused by medical malpractice to Mr. A were acknowledged, and the American 'McBride Evaluation Table' was applied to calculate the loss of labor capacity rate at 24%. The McBride Evaluation Table, first published in 1936 and discontinued after the revised edition in 1963, is an evaluation standard widely used domestically to calculate compensation amounts. However, the appellate court pointed out that the McBride Evaluation Table includes outdated standards and "except for Korea, there are virtually no cases applying it."
The court adopted the Korean Medical Association's disability evaluation criteria to assess the loss of labor capacity rate. The reasons cited were that it better fits Korean conditions compared to the McBride Evaluation Table and that the setting of the loss of labor capacity index is rational and systematic. According to the Korean Medical Association's disability evaluation criteria, the court recalculated Mr. A's loss of labor capacity rate at 18%, and considering the influence of pre-existing conditions, which was evaluated at 50%, the final recognized loss of labor capacity rate was 9%.
Mr. A, who underwent lumbar disc surgery in 2015, suffered a disability that prevented him from lifting his left ankle due to the doctor's malpractice. Consequently, Mr. A filed a lawsuit against the hospital demanding compensation for the sequelae. The appellate court, like the original court, judged that the disability Mr. A suffered was causally related to the hospital's malpractice. However, it also held that Mr. A bore some responsibility for refusing the doctor's authorized standard surgical method, limiting the hospital's liability to 80%.
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