HDC Hyundai Development Company Allowed to Continue Operations After Court Grants Suspension of Business Ban Over Gwangju Hwajeong I-Park Collapse

The court has accepted HDC Hyundai Development Company's request to suspend the one-year business suspension order it received from the Seoul Metropolitan Government in connection with the collapse accident at Hwajeong I-Park in Gwangju.

According to the legal community on June 1, the Seoul Administrative Court's Division 6 for Administrative Affairs (Presiding Judge Na Jin-i) granted HDC Hyundai Development Company's application for suspension of execution against the Seoul Metropolitan Government on May 30. As the effectiveness of the suspension order is temporarily halted until the court issues a final ruling on the main case, HDC Hyundai Development Company will be able to continue its business operations for now.

Previously, the Seoul Metropolitan Government imposed an eight-month business suspension on HDC Hyundai Development Company from June 9 of this year to February 8 of next year, citing "causing significant damage or casualties due to intentional or grossly negligent shoddy construction" in relation to the Hwajeong I-Park collapse. The city also imposed an additional four-month suspension from February 9 to June 8 of next year, citing "the occurrence of a serious industrial accident under the Occupational Safety and Health Act."

On January 11, 2022, at the construction site of I-Park in Hwajeong-dong, Seo-gu, Gwangju, a structural collapse resulted in the deaths of six workers and injuries to one. As a result of this accident, 20 people were indicted, including three corporations: the prime contractor HDC Hyundai Development Company, a subcontractor, and a supervision company. In the first trial in January of this year, the site manager of HDC Hyundai Development Company was sentenced to four years in prison, and the company was fined 500 million won.

On May 20, HDC Hyundai Development Company filed an administrative lawsuit and applied for suspension of execution in protest against the Seoul Metropolitan Government's business suspension order. The main administrative lawsuit is currently being heard by the same panel of judges that decided on the suspension of execution.