Court Rules "Survivor's Benefits Review Procedure Must Be Followed"... Loses Lawsuit Against Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, which rejected survivor benefits applied for by the family of a deceased worker without following legal procedures, lost the related administrative lawsuit.

According to the legal community on the 21st, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 3 (Presiding Judge Hwanwoo Yoo) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the family of worker A against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, seeking cancellation of the denial of survivor benefits and funeral expenses. The court stated, "There is a procedural defect in this case as it did not go through the deliberation of the Occupational Disease Judgment Committee, and therefore it must be canceled."

Worker A collapsed in an office in 2002 and was diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage and aspiration pneumonia, which were recognized by the Service as occupational diseases. Later, after undergoing surgery for colitis in 2016, A did not recover and passed away. The family applied for survivor benefits in 2018, claiming that the colitis was caused by the prior occupational disease and led to A's death. However, the Service rejected the application without the deliberation of the Occupational Disease Judgment Committee, citing "no causal relationship between the two diseases," and the family filed a lawsuit arguing that there was a procedural defect.

In court, the Service argued that it could exceptionally conclude the application for survivor benefits and funeral expenses for an additional disease developed beyond the existing occupational disease without undergoing deliberation. However, the court ruled against this claim, stating, "The exclusion from deliberation applies only to medical benefits for the additional disease, and the application for survivor benefits and funeral expenses for the additional disease cannot be considered excluded from the Occupational Disease Judgment Committee's deliberation."