The Supreme Court has ruled that shouting profanity in an apartment hallway late at night to protest noise between floors does not constitute the crime of insult.
The Supreme Court's First Division (presiding Justice Shin Suk-hee) said on the 24th that on May 29 it overturned a lower court ruling that fined a person surnamed Lee (53) 1 million won on an insult charge and sent the case back to the Daegu District Court.
Lee called 112 on Oct. 7, 2022, reporting "I am inconvenienced by a noise issue between floors with the upstairs neighbor." Responding officers found no notable issues such as noise and then withdrew after advising that the apartment management office should mediate to resolve the noise complaint.
Later the same day at about 11:30 p.m., in a hallway of an apartment in Jung-gu, Daegu, where Lee lives, and in the presence of an apartment management employee, Lee lodged a noise complaint with victim A (46). During this process, Lee hurled profanity at A such as "Hey, you XX bastard, you XX who can't even do X," and was indicted on an insult charge.
In the first trial, the court fined Lee 1 million won. The first-instance panel cited as grounds for guilt that A consistently said during the police investigation and in court, in substance, "Lee used profanity such as 'you XX bastard, you XX who can't even do X' in front of (my) apartment door."
Lee appealed, but the appellate court dismissed the appeal. For the crime of insult to be established, there must be openness such that an unspecified or large number of people can perceive it.
The appellate panel said, "Lee uttered the profanity in an apartment hallway where many people live, and the time of the remarks was late at night when most residents are at home," adding, "It appears that when Lee used the profanity, an unspecified or large number of people were in a position to perceive it."
However, the Supreme Court found that Lee's profanity did not constitute the crime of insult and reversed and remanded the lower court's ruling.
The Supreme Court said, "Whether a given expression constitutes insult under the crime of insult must be judged strictly not by whether the other party felt bad upon hearing it, but by whether, in light of the relationship between the parties, the circumstances leading to the expression, the manner of expression, and the situation at the time, it is an expression capable of infringing the other party's external honor."
It continued, "The remarks in this case were mere simple profanity uttered by Lee while agitated, expressing negative feelings toward the victim and amounting only to words that could hurt feelings," adding, "It is difficult to view them as an insult that would objectively lower society's evaluation of the victim's personal worth."