Supreme Court: "Seongnam City's Rejection of Retaining Wall Apartment Use Approval Application is Lawful"
The so-called ‘retaining wall apartment’ developer in Baekhyeon-dong, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, ultimately lost the lawsuit filed against Seongnam City, which rejected the application for use approval.
The Supreme Court’s 1st Division (Presiding Justice No Tae-ak) on the 27th upheld the lower court’s ruling that dismissed the lawsuit filed by Seongnam R&D PFV against Seongnam City, which sought to cancel the rejection of the use approval application. Seongnam R&D PFV is a special purpose company established by Asia Developer and others who led the private development of the Baekhyeon-dong project.
The apartment in question consists of 15 buildings with 1,223 units, built on a site created by excavating a mountain and installing a large retaining wall approximately 450 meters wide and up to 40 meters high. In June 2021, Seongnam City conducted use inspections and completed inspections for each apartment building, but postponed the inspection of the community facility building attached to the retaining wall, citing the need for additional safety verification. Seongnam City also requested Seongnam R&D PFV to submit safety inspection reports from the Architectural Institute of Korea and the Korean Geotechnical Society.
When Seongnam R&D PFV submitted only the report from the Architectural Institute of Korea and failed to submit the report from the Korean Geotechnical Society, Seongnam City rejected the application for use inspection of the entire apartment complex. Seongnam R&D PFV filed an administrative lawsuit, arguing that completing use inspections only by building rather than for the entire apartment complex was unfair. The Suwon District Court, which handled the first trial, stated, “The public interest in protecting the lives and property of all residents and ensuring a pleasant living environment cannot be considered less significant than the damage the plaintiff may suffer due to the rejection of the use inspection application.”
The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion. The Supreme Court ruled, “There is no error affecting the judgment such as misinterpreting the legal principles regarding use inspections under the Housing Act or misinterpreting the legal principles concerning the contents and conditions of the project plan approval, and the disposition by Seongnam City is lawful.”
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