Prosecutors tried to transfer ownership of the residence in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, from the widow Lee Soon-ja and others, saying they would recover the unpaid forfeiture from the late former President Chun Doo-hwan, but they failed.
The Civil Division 6-3 of the Seoul High Court (High Court Judges Lee Kyung-hoon, Park Hae-bin, and Kwon Sun-min) on the 20th dismissed, as in the first instance, the state's lawsuit for transfer of ownership registration against 11 co-owners of equity in the Yeonhui-dong dwellings, including Lee, former secretary Lee Taek-soo, and the former president's eldest son, Jae-guk.
Earlier, the first trial court judged in Feb. that, due to the former president's death, the forfeiture claim under the judgment had been extinguished. Debts arising from various criminal judgments are, in principle, not subject to inheritance. Dismissal means the court ends the procedure without examining the merits when a lawsuit or claim is improper or fails to meet requirements.
In 1997, the Supreme Court finalized a life sentence for the former president and ordered 220.5 billion won in forfeiture. In 2013, prosecutors seized the former president's Yeonhui-dong residence based on the forfeiture judgment.
The main building of the Yeonhui-dong residence was under Lee's name, the garden under Lee Taek-soo's name, and the annex under the name of the former president's daughter-in-law, Lee Yun-hye. In 2018, they filed an objection, saying the seizure was unjust. In Apr. 2021, the Supreme Court decided, "There is insufficient legal basis to view the main building of the Yeonhui-dong home under Lee's name and the garden under Lee's name as property subject to confiscation," and ordered prosecutors to lift the seizure.
However, the court added, "If the main building and the garden constitute the defendant's (Chun Doo-hwan) borrowed-name assets, the state may file a creditor's subrogation suit, restore the title in the defendant's name, and then execute the forfeiture judgment." In Oct. of the same year, to execute the unpaid forfeiture, prosecutors filed a suit to transfer ownership of the main building and the garden to the former president. The former president died on Nov. 23, 2021, after the suit was filed.