The Supreme Court has ruled that the state must compensate victims who were forcibly confined before 1975, when the government's management guidelines were established, in connection with the Brothers Home case.
The Supreme Court's Second Division (presiding Justice Oh Kyung-mi) on the 13th sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, overturning the lower court that had partially ruled for the plaintiffs in a damages suit filed by victims of the Brothers Home case against the state, finding as follows. The reason was that "it can be seen that the state was directly or indirectly involved in crackdowns and forcible confinement of the plaintiffs before the 1975 directive was issued."
The Brothers Home case refers to the forcible confinement, from 1960 to 1992, of people whom the police and other public authorities labeled as vagrants in Brothers Home, which was operated by a private social welfare corporation. It is known that more than 650 people died there due to forced labor, assaults, and abusive acts.
The issue in this case was whether the state's liability for damages could be recognized for victims who were confined before 1975, prior to the establishment of the government's management guidelines. Brothers Home was established in July 1960 as Brothers Nursery, an unlicensed child care facility, but in 1975 it was expanded and reorganized based on a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs under a consignment contract with the city of Busan.
For this reason, courts had previously recognized the state's liability for damages to Brothers Home victims but did not take into account confinement periods involving crackdowns and forcible confinement carried out before 1975, saying it was difficult to see the state as having been involved.
However, the Supreme Court found that since the 1950s the state had continuously conducted crackdowns on vagrant children and taken confinement measures, and that this direction culminated in the issuance of the Ministry of Home Affairs directive. The Supreme Court cited as grounds examples of coordinated crackdowns carried out in regions such as Seoul and Busan before the directive was issued.
The Supreme Court said, "In light of these circumstances, it can be seen that the plaintiffs' confinement in Brothers Home before 1975 was carried out as part of the state's vagrant-child policy and its enforcement."