NongHyup Responds, "Not a Violation of Quarantine Rules"
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] On the 18th, after 11 months, a trial was held regarding the claim for damages lawsuit filed by Changwon City, Gyeongnam against Namchangwon Nonghyup related to the COVID-19 cluster infection incident last September.
According to the city, Namchangwon Nonghyup held customer attraction events such as operating a tasting corner and discount promotions, which were prohibited under social distancing level 2 or higher, between July 15 and August 4 last year.
On August 2, despite confirmed cases occurring at the Agricultural and Marine Products Distribution Center, they continued business operations, and 13 employees working inside the store were confirmed positive. They only stopped operations at 6 p.m. on August 4.
It was revealed that they concealed the situation for about three days after the first confirmed case, which sparked public outrage against Nonghyup.
From August 5 for two days, about 20,000 citizens underwent testing, resulting in 69 confirmed cases and some deaths.
At that time, Changwon City filed a civil lawsuit claiming 1.15 billion KRW in damages against Namchangwon Nonghyup.
According to the 4th Civil Division of Changwon District Court, during the trial, Nonghyup argued, “We did not violate quarantine rules,” and “Even if there were violations related to the customer attraction events, there is no causal relationship with the damages claimed by the city.”
On that day, the court reportedly requested the Changwon City side to provide specific opinions regarding the illegal acts of the defendant Namchangwon Nonghyup, the basis of the incident, violated laws, employer responsibility for the incident, or corporate liability under Article 35 of the Civil Act.
The Changwon City side responded that they had not received Nonghyup’s answers for long and that there were many rebuttals, so they decided to argue further at the next hearing.
The next hearing is scheduled for September 22.
Previously, the city stated that the claim included 1.063 billion KRW for diagnostic testing fees for 18,660 people tested due to the Namchangwon Nonghyup infection incident, 82 million KRW for treatment costs of 18 confirmed patients, and 10 million KRW for additional screening center installation costs.
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