Legal Disputes for Approximately 9 Years Since the August 2014 Incident
The Supreme Court has issued its first ruling that insurance payments must be made to a husband who was acquitted after being tried for murdering his pregnant Cambodian wife by staging a traffic accident.
According to the legal community on the 27th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) on the 19th of last month dismissed the appeal without review, thereby upholding the lower court's partial ruling in favor of plaintiff A and his daughter in their lawsuit against Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association seeking approximately 210 million won in insurance payments.
In August 2014, A was driving a van near Cheonan IC on the Gyeongbu Expressway when he collided with a parked truck on the shoulder. As a result of this accident, his 7-month pregnant Cambodian wife, who was a passenger, died at the age of 24.
The prosecution charged A with murder, citing that from 2008 to 2014 he had entered into multiple insurance contracts worth a total of about 9.5 billion won in his wife's name, and that sedative components were detected in her bloodstains.
It was confirmed that some of these contracts were signed two months before the wife's death, at a time when A's financial situation had worsened.
During the trial, A argued that the accident occurred due to drowsy driving caused by extreme fatigue from not having more than 21 hours of uninterrupted sleep due to work.
The first trial court acquitted him due to lack of evidence, but the second trial court recognized the charges of murder and fraud, citing additional insurance subscriptions, and sentenced A to life imprisonment.
However, after a remand trial, the Supreme Court confirmed A's acquittal on the murder and fraud charges. Nonetheless, it upheld the lower court's ruling that he was guilty of causing death by negligence under the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling and sentenced him to two years in prison.
Subsequently, A has been filing lawsuits against insurance companies to claim insurance payments. It is known that there are more than 20 insurance policies registered under B.
In the lawsuit A filed against Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association, both the first and second trial courts ruled in favor of A. Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association argued that A had taken out multiple insurance policies for fraudulent purposes, deliberately caused the traffic accident, and that the insured Cambodian wife did not understand the contract terms, rendering the insurance contracts invalid.
However, the court found no clear circumstances indicating that A was burdened with malignant debt and considered that, given income from a household goods store and other factors, he was in an economic situation capable of bearing the insurance premiums. Furthermore, the court dismissed the insurer's claim of fraudulent insurance contracts, noting that A had taken out multiple insurance policies not only for his wife but also for his parents and daughter.
A is currently involved in lawsuits with a total of 11 insurance companies, having won judgments in three of them. The lawsuits with other insurance companies, which have yet to be concluded, are expected to be influenced by this ruling.
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