A court has ruled that if someone collapses after a heated argument with an employee at work and is found dead, it should be considered an industrial accident.
The 13th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Jin Hyun-seop) said on the 31st that it ruled in favor of the plaintiff on May 2 in a lawsuit filed by A against the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL) seeking to overturn the denial of survivors' benefits and funeral expenses.
B, the spouse of A, worked as a plant manager at a factory and oversaw production. At about 3:08 p.m. on Mar. 15, 2024, B loaded materials for work at a client and arrived at the factory by truck. B then angrily rebuked worker C, who was unloading the materials from the truck using a crane, asking in effect, "Why didn't you bring the work order?"
B and C argued for about 10 minutes in the factory break room. When B suddenly said, "I'm tired," and lay down briefly, C left the break room. Another worker later found B unconscious and collapsed at about 3:52 p.m. and called 119. B was taken to a hospital, was diagnosed with intracerebral hemorrhage, and died on Apr. 1 of the same year.
A claimed B's death was an industrial accident and sought survivors' benefits and funeral expenses from the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL). The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL) declined to pay, saying, "Given the content of B's argument with a coworker, it is hard to see it as an acute stressor sufficient to cause cerebral hemorrhage," and "suspected findings of hypertension and dyslipidemia as well as a history of drinking and smoking were confirmed."
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled that the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL)'s denial of survivors' benefits and funeral expenses was unlawful and should be revoked.
The court said, "It can be inferred that B's severe argument and conflict with a coworker, acting in combination with physical factors and the like, caused or aggravated the illness (cerebral hemorrhage)," adding, "A substantial causal relationship is recognized between the death and the work."
B received suspected findings of borderline hypertension and dyslipidemia in health checkups in 2015 and 2017. The court said, "B had never been diagnosed with or treated for a cerebrovascular disease while alive," adding, "B appears to have been in sufficiently good health to carry on daily life and work without any problems."