Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yoo Myung-hwan won the second trial in a lawsuit he filed, claiming that the Ministry of Education's decision to revoke his position as a director of Daeyang Academy, the school corporation of Sejong University, was unjust.
According to the legal community on the 27th, the Administrative Division 10 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Seong Su-je, Yang Jin-su, Ha Tae-han) recently ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Yoo and Joo Myung-geon, honorary chairman of Daeyang Academy, in their lawsuit requesting the cancellation of the Ministry of Education's decision to revoke their approval to assume executive positions, consistent with the first trial.
In February 2021, the Ministry of Education revoked the approval for the two to assume executive positions due to reasons including mismanagement of assets, neglect of executive duties, undervaluation management of income-generating basic assets, and improper involvement in the faculty recruitment process. The Ministry judged that this fell under the Private School Act's provision allowing cancellation of approval without a correction request when it is clear that correction cannot be made.
However, the court ruled that the Ministry of Education's decision was improper. The court stated, "Although the reasons for this disposition are valid, the decision was made without a correction request, resulting in procedural defects and thus is illegal," and added, "There is also illegality due to violation of the principles of proportionality and equality, constituting an abuse and deviation of discretionary power."
The court also judged that compensating for damages caused by the problematic facts and taking appropriate measures to prevent future damages can be considered 'correction' under the Private School Act.
The court explained, "If 'correction' is interpreted as restoring the past situation without problems retroactively, the scope of correction requests could be extremely limited."
Furthermore, the court pointed out, "The cancellation of approval to assume executive positions is the strongest sanction equivalent to dismissal, causing significant disadvantages such as the plaintiffs being unable to assume executive positions in the school corporation for five years," and noted, "Other school corporations also managed income-generating basic assets at undervalued prices but only received maximum warnings, yet the plaintiffs were subjected to excessively harsh sanctions."
Yoo, who served as the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2008 to 2010, served as chairman of Daeyang Academy for eight years starting in 2013.
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