[Plaintiffs, Appellees] ○○○ and 2 others, Attorney Kim Ik-bo as Litigation Representative for the Plaintiffs
[Defendant, Appellant] Republic of Korea
[Original Judgment] Seoul High Court Decision 85Na1135 delivered on August 20, 1985
[Order]
The part of the judgment below against the Defendant is reversed, and this part of the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court.
[Reasoning] The Court examines the grounds of appeal of the Defendant's litigation performer.
It is the view of this Court that the amount of loss of future income of a person who died or suffered bodily disability due to a tort shall, in principle, be calculated based on the amount of income earned from the occupation in which the victim was engaged at the time the damage occurred due to the tort, unless there is objective material to a considerable degree of certainty showing that such income would increase in the future; and that the loss of future income of a victim who had no fixed income at the time of the tort shall be based on the general labor wage that any ordinary person could earn by engaging in general labor, and such income may not be determined by taking into account the victim's educational background or career (see this Court's Decisions 71Da1349 delivered on July 27, 1971; 76Da2418 delivered on November 8, 1977; 67Da844 delivered on July 18, 1967, etc.).
According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below found the following facts: that Plaintiff ○○○ was born on July 13, 1966, and was 16 years and 4 months old at the time of the accident in this case, with a remaining life expectancy of 49.92 years; that she graduated from Seoul Jangchung Middle School, entered Seoul High Technical School on March 9, 1982, and withdrew therefrom on October 7 of that year; and that at the time of the accident in this case, she had no particular occupation and no fixed income. In calculating the said Plaintiff's lost income due to the tort in this case, the court below, premising that since the Plaintiff was a minor who, after graduating from middle school, had withdrawn from high school during her first year and had thereafter remained without an occupation, her lost income from the time she reaches the age of majority onward should, absent special circumstances, reasonably be based on the average wage, across all industries and all ages, of workers with an educational background of middle school graduation or below as recognized by statistics, calculated this amount based on the monthly average wage of 226,354 won for male workers with middle school education or below, across all industries and all ages, for the year 1983, as surveyed and published by the Ministry of Labor. This is a vague calculation without reasonable basis, which misunderstands the legal principles governing the calculation of lost income, fails to provide sufficient reasoning in the judgment, and runs contrary to the view of this Court set forth in the foregoing paragraph; and the ground of appeal by leave criticizing this point is therefore well-founded.
Therefore, the part of the judgment below against the Defendant is reversed, and in order to have the court below conduct a retrial and make a new determination, this part of the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court. This judgment is rendered as stated in the Order by the unanimous opinion of the participating Justices.
Justice Lee Hoe-chang (Presiding Justice), Jeon Sang-seok, Jeong Gi-seung