[Plaintiff, Appellee] Plaintiff's Attorney Lee Gap-yeol
[Defendant, Appellant] Korea Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (한국중공업주식회사), Attorney Cho Tae-yeon and 2 others of Joongang International Law & Patent Firm (법무법인 중앙국제법률특허사무소), acting as counsel
[Judgment Below] Seoul High Court Judgment of September 13, 1990, Case No. 90Na19871
[Order]
The appeal is dismissed.
The costs of the appeal shall be borne by the Defendant.
[Reasoning]
According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the court below found that the amount of damages suffered by the Plaintiff as a result of this accident consisted of lost earnings of 28,897,664 won, future medical expenses of 1,500,000 won, and attendance/care expenses of 43,363,861 won, and divided these into passive damages (소극적 손해) and active damages (적극적 손해). The court below then assessed the Plaintiff's degree of contributory negligence at 40 percent and, after offsetting for comparative negligence, found that the amount to be compensated by the tortfeasor was 17,338,598 won for passive damages and 26,918,316 won for active damages. Meanwhile, the court below found that the amounts the Plaintiff had received as insurance benefits under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (산업재해보상보험법) were 15,039,640 won in temporary disability compensation benefits, 39,042,750 won in disability compensation benefits, and 2,637,690 won in medical care benefits. The court below determined that the former two items were of a nature compensating for passive damages while the latter was of a nature compensating for active damages, and accordingly deducted each from the damages of the same nature. As a result, the court below found that, with respect to passive damages, the Plaintiff had already received 36,743,792 won more than the amount of damages, whereas with respect to active damages, the Plaintiff had not yet been compensated for 24,280,626 won of the damages, and ordered the Defendant to pay the Plaintiff the uncompensated portion of active damages in the amount of 24,280,626 won, together with consolation money of 3,000,000 won.
Upon examination, Article 11, Paragraph 2 of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (산업재해보상보험법) provides that where a person entitled to benefits has received insurance benefits under this Act for the same cause, the insured employer shall be exempted from liability for damages under the Civil Act (민법) or other statutes to the extent of that amount. Here, "the same cause" refers to a case where the damage that is the subject of the insurance benefit and the damage that is the subject of the civil damages claim are of the same nature, such that the insurance benefit and the damages are in a mutually complementary relationship. Therefore, even though, as found by the court below, the Plaintiff received 15,039,640 won in temporary disability compensation benefits and 39,042,750 won in disability compensation benefits as insurance benefits, resulting in the Plaintiff having been compensated 36,743,792 won more than the amount of passive damages as found by the court below, that excess portion should not be deducted in calculating the amount of compensation for active damages, which are of a different nature. The judgment of the court below is justified.
The grounds of appeal are without merit, and accordingly the appeal is dismissed, with the costs of the appeal to be borne by the losing party. The opinions of the participating Justices being unanimous, it is so decided as set forth in the Order.
Justice Kim Seok-su (Presiding Justice), Lee Hoi-chang, Lee Jae-seong, Bae Man-woon