Withdrawal of lawsuit after three no-shows at hearings
8-year lawsuit collapses... Bereaved family shocked and outraged
"Criticized Cho Kuk and Lee Jae-myung... Who's who"
Attorney Kwon Kyung-ae, author of the 'Black Book on Cho Kuk,' took on the role of legal counsel for a victim of school violence but failed to appear at several court hearings, ultimately leading to the dismissal of the lawsuit in a baffling turn of events.
The Seoul High Court Civil Division 8-2 (Presiding Judge Kim Bong-won) ruled on November 24 last year that the appeal filed by Ms. Lee, the mother of the late Park Joo-won who died from school violence in 2015, against the school corporation and perpetrators for damages was dismissed, according to a report by Hankyoreh on the 6th.
Attorney Kwon Kyung-ae [Photo by Attorney Kwon Kyung-ae, captured from Facebook]
The bereaved family had no proper opportunity to voice their case during the eight-year-long appeal of the school violence incident. This was because Attorney Kwon Kyung-ae of the law firm Haemir, who was retained by the family and represented the lawsuit, did not appear in court.
According to the family, Attorney Kwon failed to appear at three hearings on September 22, October 13, and November 10 of last year. As a result, the partial victory for the plaintiff in the first trial was overturned to a loss, and the appeals against the remaining perpetrators were withdrawn.
According to the Civil Procedure Act, if a party to an appeal does not appear at two court hearings, a new date can be set within one month upon application. However, if the party still fails to appear, the appeal is considered withdrawn. This case fell under that provision.
The fact of lawsuit withdrawal was revealed only after 5 months... "Eight years of litigation feels so unjust"
Attorney Kwon Kyung-ae (second from the left), co-author of the 2020 book "A Country Never Experienced Before," attending a press conference. [Image source=Yonhap News]
Moreover, it has been reported that Attorney Kwon did not inform the bereaved family for five months that the lawsuit had been withdrawn due to her absence from court, which has intensified the controversy.
Ms. Lee, the bereaved mother, stated, "I kept asking about the trial status out of frustration, but they did not respond until recently when they told me we lost," confirming the trial result only last week. She added, "They said the staff member handling the case quit, so they couldn't manage it. I have been struggling as a cleaning worker to pursue this lawsuit for eight years, and this is so heartbreaking."
Attorney Kwon, co-author of the so-called 'Black Book on Cho Kuk' (A Country Never Experienced Before), which took a critical stance on the 'Cho Kuk incident,' gained recognition by posting political commentary on her social media accounts. Regarding her absence from the three hearings, she told Hankyoreh, "It was a negligence. There is no excuse, and I cannot provide any explanation for the mistake."
Meanwhile, the late Park Joo-won was subjected to group bullying and insults by perpetrators through social media during middle and high school. Park transferred to another region to escape them, but the harassment continued even in high school, and after returning from a school trip in 2015, she took her own life.
In August 2016, Ms. Lee filed a lawsuit seeking damages against the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the school corporation, and 34 perpetrators. However, on February 1 last year, the first trial court recognized only one perpetrator's liability for damages, ruling a 'partial victory for the plaintiff,' to which the family filed an appeal.
Bereaved family: "Criticizing Cho Kuk and Lee Jae-myung every day... Who is criticizing whom?"
On that day, Ms. Lee expressed her frustration on her social media, saying, "Attorney Kwon, who said the lawsuit was like that around October last year and that she was too exhausted to do anything, criticizes Cho Kuk and Lee Jae-myung and denounces politics almost daily on her Facebook account," adding, "Who is criticizing whom?"
When Ms. Lee asked Attorney Kwon, "Why on earth did you not attend the court hearings?" Kwon reportedly replied, "Once I went to the court but fainted and couldn't attend; the second time, I mistakenly wrote the date as the next day in my planner and missed it, but I thought I could have the trial again, and the judge gave me wrong information, so it happened that way."
Ms. Lee criticized, "Thinking about the perpetrators boasting about winning the trial breaks my heart and leaves me devastated. A lawyer who knows the law well has killed my daughter twice and struck a blow to a grieving mother's heart, pushing her off a cliff."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
