The Supreme Court has ruled that death insurance should be paid even if an extreme choice was made after suffering depression due to a car accident.



According to the Supreme Court on the 4th, Mr. A hit a guard rail while driving in September 2017 while avoiding a cat.



It was raining at the time of the accident, and Mr. A was trapped in the car until he was rescued.



The problem was after discharge, and Mr. A was treated for depression from November of that year to March of the following year due to the aftereffects of the accident.



Although his symptoms improved with hospitalization, he continued to complain of symptoms such as trembling on rainy days and abnormal behavior while sleeping.



While considering her re-hospitalization, Mr. A's husband also suffered a sudden car accident and was hospitalized, and Mr. A made an extreme choice in the hospital bathroom while nursing her husband.



A's son filed a lawsuit against the insurance company to pay 100 million won for her traffic accident death insurance to Mr. A.



This insurance contract included a special contract to pay insurance money 'in case of death as a direct result of an injury caused by a traffic accident'.



The insurance company denied a direct causal relationship between death and depression, saying that Mr.



The court of first instance accepted A's son's claim and ruled to pay the insurance money, but the appeals court upheld the insurance company's hand.



The court of appeals judged that the accident caused depression, but that the death was caused by Mr. A's free will and had nothing to do with depression.



A's son was dissatisfied with this and filed an appeal.



The second division of the Supreme Court (Chief Judge Cheon Dae-yeop) returned the case to the Seoul Central District Court, seeing that it was difficult to accept the original trial.



The court noted that Mr. A suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression due to a traffic accident, and was not fully cured, but was faced with situations that reminded him of the day of the accident, such as 'my husband's car accident' or 'rainy weather'. I did.



In addition to these facts, it is sufficient to infer that Mr. A died as a direct result of an injury caused by a traffic accident, adding that Mr. A had not suffered a mental illness or made an extreme choice before the accident. .



(Photo = Yonhap News)