Former Soldier Who Hid Drunk Driving Hit-and-Run... Court Rules Denial of Military Pension Lawful

"Statute of Limitations on Pension Already Expired"

A court has ruled that the military authorities' decision to suspend retirement benefits for a retired soldier who concealed a hit-and-run drunk driving incident while serving in the military was justified.

According to the legal community on December 15, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 2 recently ruled against former soldier A in a lawsuit filed against the head of the Armed Forces Financial Management Corps to cancel the decision to deny payment of military pension benefits.

While serving in the military, A was sentenced in 2006 to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, for driving a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.169%, violating a traffic signal, colliding with a taxi, and fleeing the scene. At the time, A did not disclose his military status during the police investigation, so the case was not transferred to military investigative authorities. The fact of the criminal conviction was only discovered years later during the retirement review process.

Subsequently, A was ordered to be discharged and transferred to the supplementary reserve, and in 2021, he applied for a retirement allowance and pension. The Armed Forces Financial Management Corps recognized his 24 years and 1 month of service, paid him approximately 200 million won in retirement benefits, and continued to pay him a monthly pension.

However, in February 2023, the Financial Management Corps suspended the pension payments and notified A of the recovery of the previously paid amount, stating, "The statute of limitations for claiming retirement benefits begins the day after mandatory retirement, and although the statute of limitations had already expired, payments were made in error."

In a previous lawsuit, A partially won on the grounds that "recovering the entire amount already paid at once is excessively harsh," but this time, he filed another lawsuit demanding the resumption of payments and compensation for unpaid amounts.

However, the court did not recognize A's claim for retirement benefits and pension. The court stated, "There was no procedural flaw in the actions of the Armed Forces Financial Management Corps, and the plaintiff's right to claim retirement benefits has expired due to the statute of limitations. The fact that pension payments were made by mistake does not mean that the statute of limitations was waived."