Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, has submitted a writ of appeal to the Supreme Court pointing out issues with the second trial ruling that recognized a property division of 1.3808 trillion won in favor of Noh So-young, director of the Art Center Nabi.
Through a 500-page writ of appeal, Choi’s side directly refuted the second trial court’s judgment that “300 billion won, presumed to be slush funds of former President Roh Tae-woo, became seed money for the Seonkyung (SK) Group,” and argued that the court’s evaluation error regarding the value of shares in Korea Telecom (the predecessor of SK C&C) is not a simple clerical or calculation error that can be resolved by a judgment correction. Attention is focused on what decision the Supreme Court will make.
Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group and Director Noh So-young of Art Center Nabi. [Image source=Yonhap News]
According to the legal community on the 6th, Hong Seung-myeon, former chief judge of the Seoul High Court (age 60, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 18), who is representing Chairman Choi, submitted the approximately 500-page writ of appeal to the Supreme Court the day before.
Typically, a writ of appeal contains a general outline of the issues to be contested in the lawsuit. Based on the claims made in the writ of appeal, Choi’s side plans to engage in intense legal battles with Director Noh’s side over detailed points of contention.
Choi’s side is known to have directly refuted the second trial court’s judgment regarding the slush funds of former President Roh in the writ of appeal. The second trial court judged that 30 billion won, presumed to be slush funds of former President Roh, flowed into the side of former Chairman Choi Jong-hyun and became seed money for the Seonkyung (SK) Group, recognizing this as Director Noh’s contribution to the growth of SK Group.
The second trial court cited a promissory note and memo from 1991, kept by Kim Ok-sook, the spouse of former President Roh, as the basis for this judgment, but Choi’s side plans to dispute their authenticity.
Furthermore, Choi’s side argued that the appellate court’s calculation of Korea Telecom’s stock value at 100 won per share in May 1998, just before the death of former Chairman Choi Jong-hyun, and its subsequent correction to 1,000 won per share was a “fatal error.” They claim that the evaluation of Director Noh’s contribution should also change accordingly, inevitably affecting the amount of property division.
On June 18, the day after the judgment correction decision, the second trial court stated, “The correction of the judgment is to amend calculation errors that occurred regarding the ‘intermediate stage’ facts related to continuous management activities involving the plaintiff’s father (former Chairman Choi Jong-hyun) and the plaintiff (Choi Tae-won), who jointly contributed to the formation of property under Chairman Choi’s name,” and added, “It does not substantially affect the price of SK shares as of the final property division reference date of April 16 this year, which is 160,000 won per share, nor the specific property division ratio.”
On the other hand, Choi’s side holds the position that, following this judgment correction, the contribution to the increase in stock value by former Chairman Choi and Chairman Choi should be revised to 125 times and 35.6 times respectively, and that the calculation of the property division amount of 1.3808 trillion won is therefore incorrect.
Choi’s writ of appeal also reportedly includes rebuttals to the second trial court’s judgment that former President Roh was the “backer” of SK Group’s growth and that all SK shares gifted by Chairman Choi to relatives in 2018 were subject to property division.
Recently, both parties have appointed new representatives for the appeal trial.
Chairman Choi appointed Hong Seung-myeon, former chief judge of the Seoul High Court (age 60, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 18), who was once considered a strong candidate for Supreme Court justice, and additionally hired lawyers Lee Jae-geun (age 51, class 28), Min Cheol-gi (age 50, class 29), Kim Seong-woo (age 55, class 31), and Lee Seung-ho (age 49, class 31) from the law firm Yulchon.
Director Noh appointed former People Power Party lawmaker Choi Jae-hyung (age 68, class 13) and lead attorney Kang Myung-hoon (age 68, class 13) from the law firm Hajung as her representatives. Former lawmaker Choi, a classmate of Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, concurrently served as chief judge of Daejeon District Court and Daejeon Family Court from September 2012 to February 2014, and served as chief judge of Seoul Family Court from February 2014 to February 2015.
Regarding the background of taking on this case, former lawmaker Choi said the day before, “I was aware of Director Noh So-young’s lawsuit through media reports, and recently received a request from Director Noh to take on the appeal trial. After reviewing the judgment and speaking directly with Director Noh, I was able to understand well that she tried to protect her family. I judged that helping such efforts receive a legally just evaluation would contribute to maintaining the basic order of a healthy society by renewing awareness of the importance of family and the sanctity of marriage.”
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