The Supreme Court sided with victims and bereaved families who were conscripted during the Japanese colonial era and worked at Japanese corporations in their damages lawsuits.
The Supreme Court's first division (Presiding Justice Ma Yong-ju) on the 11th finalized a lower court ruling ordering Nippon Steel (formerly Shin-Nippon Steel) to pay 100 million won to the four children of deceased forced-labor victim Jeong Hyeong-pal.
Jeong said he was forcibly mobilized and suffered harm while working at a steel mill in Iwate Prefecture from 1940 to 1942. The bereaved family filed a damages suit against Nippon Steel in Apr. 2019, seeking a little over 200 million won.
The Japanese corporations argued they bore no liability because the statute of limitations had already expired. In civil cases, a damages claim generally expires three years from the date the victim became aware of the unlawful act, and 10 years from the date of the act. If there was an "objective reason that made it impossible to remove the obstacle," the time when the obstacle was removed is used as the starting point for the statute of limitations.
Earlier, in 2012 the Supreme Court for the first time recognized the right to claim compensation in a damages suit against Nippon Steel. Then in 2018, a Supreme Court en banc ruling finally confirmed that Japanese corporations bear liability for compensation.
Afterward, forced-labor victims, including Jeong's bereaved family, filed damages suits against Japanese corporations. In the first trial in Sep. 2021, the court viewed 2012 as the time the "obstacle" was removed and dismissed the claim, saying the bereaved family's right to seek damages had expired. However, the appeals court determined that the obstacle was removed in Oct. 2018, when the Supreme Court en banc ruling was issued. It found that time remained on the statute of limitations.
The lawsuit filed by Jeong's children was the first among the damages suits brought against Japanese corporations after the Supreme Court's 2018 en banc ruling.