A lawsuit filed by families of victims of the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon seeking to overturn compensation imposed on the joint memorial altar at Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall was rejected.
According to legal sources on the 20th, Seo Ji-won, a single-judge panel of the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 3, ruled against the plaintiffs on the 14th in a suit filed by the 10/29 Citizens' Countermeasures Committee for the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon seeking to cancel the Seoul mayor's disposition imposing compensation for use of city-owned property.
Earlier, the families of victims of the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon set up a joint memorial altar at Seoul Plaza in Feb. 2023 ahead of the 100th day of the disaster. The city then said the families had occupied and used Seoul Plaza without prior notification, and after going through prior notice procedures, imposed 28.99 million won in compensation in May 2023. A month later, it additionally imposed 187.73 million won in compensation.
In response, the families filed suit. The families said, "Although the city has an obligation under Article 66 of the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety to establish and operate a memorial space, it failed to fulfill that obligation." Since the families instead set up the joint memorial altar, the city cannot impose compensation, and even if it does, it should reduce it by the expense of installing the altar.
However, the court did not accept the families' claims. The court said, "The provisions of the disaster and safety law require the state treasury or local governments to subsidize all or part of the expense of relief and recovery projects when necessary for smooth recovery in areas declared special disaster zones," and found that the joint memorial altar did not fall under this.
The court also said it did not fall under the local government property law, noting, among other things, that the compensation was imposed more than about five months after the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon occurred.
In addition, the court dismissed the families' claims, citing a clause in a June 2024 agreement between the families and the Seoul city government stating, "The families must pay to the Seoul city government, in accordance with relevant procedures, the compensation arising from occupying Seoul Plaza to operate the memorial altar."