The Supreme Court judged that it was unfair that insurance companies refused to pay insurance money to a soldier who made an extreme choice after suffering harsh treatment.
According to the legal community today (4th), the third division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Ahn Chul-sang) broke the lower court ruling that the plaintiff lost the lawsuit filed by the mother of a deceased soldier A against two insurance companies and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. .
Mr. A, who enlisted in December 2016, was found dead in August 2017 after suffering from depression after being diagnosed with depression after being deployed to the Army Infantry Division and being insulted and assaulted by senior soldiers.
As he passed away, Mr. A's bereaved family claimed insurance money for two death insurance cases that had been purchased in advance.
However, the insurance companies refused to pay because the cause of A's death was an 'extreme choice', and Mr. A's mother filed a civil lawsuit against the two insurance companies.
Enlarge Image
The issue of the lawsuit was to determine whether 'A is in a state where he is unable to make free decisions'.
If Mr. A, who died, was in a state where he could not make free decisions due to mental illness, he should recognize it as an accident and pay insurance money, but if he made an extreme choice himself, the insurance company is not obliged to pay insurance money.
Both the first and second trials, which looked at this, raised the hands of the two insurance companies, saying, "At the time of death, it is difficult to say that Mr. A was beyond general depression and had lost the ability to make free decisions."
On the other hand, the Supreme Court judged that "there is room for admitting that Mr. A was suffering from depression due to the harsh behavior of his unit members and made an extreme choice in a state where he was unable to make free decisions due to extreme pain."
The Supreme Court said, “The level of harsh behavior was very severe, such as verbally abusing Mr. A and assaulting him with a baseball bat by senior soldiers in his unit.” I also suffered,” he explained.
"It was difficult for Mr. A to find a way to avoid the harsh behavior of the senior soldiers, and the unit he belonged to did not change until his death," he said. It was an impossible situation.”
If you have troubles that are difficult to talk about, such as depression, or if you have family or acquaintances who are experiencing these difficulties, call the suicide prevention hotline ☎ 1393, mental health hotline ☎1577-0199, hope hotline ☎ 129, life hotline ☎ 1588-9191, teenagers Phone ☎ 1388, youth mobile counseling 'Dog will listen to everything' app, KakaoTalk, etc. You can receive expert counseling 24 hours a day.