Court hands partial victory to Sewol sinking survivors

The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of 55 survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster and their families on Wednesday, upholding the previous ruling on the compensation suit...

The salvaged Sewol ferry stands at a port in Mokpo, South Jeolla, on Jan. 2, where bereaved families of the victims and civic groups held a press conference calling for prosecution of those responsible for the disaster that took the lives of over 300 people, many of them students, nearly 10 years ago. [YONHAP]

The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of 19 survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster and their families on Wednesday, upholding the previous ruling on the compensation suit.

However, it dismissed a separate request for compensation for secondary damage allegedly caused by the military’s illegal spying on the survivors and their relatives.

The high court upheld a previous ruling that awarded 80 million won ($60,273) in compensation to each of the survivors.

Of the survivors, six were issued slightly higher compensation in the latest ruling after medical examinations confirmed the level of their trauma.

The high court also upheld an earlier ruling awarding 4 million to 16 million won in compensation to relatives of survivors who were high school students at the time, and 2 million to 32 million won to relatives of other survivors.

The Sewol ferry capsized off the coast of Jindo, South Jeolla, in April 2014 while en route to Jeju Island, killing 304 passengers and crew.

Of those who died on the ferry, 250 were juniors from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi.

People visit the classroom once used by Danwon High School students who died in the Sewol ferry's sinking in 2014, on April 12, 2021. [YONHAP]

The captain, Lee Jun-seok, and 14 crew members survived, abandoning the sinking ferry after telling everyone else to stay put. Lee was sentenced to life for murder by the Supreme Court in 2015, and the crew members received prison terms ranging from 18 months to 12 years for negligence.

The plaintiffs first filed for compensation in 2015, when the government issued a special law to compensate the victims and their relatives.

The plaintiffs refused to take the government-issued compensation at the time, arguing that they could not take any compensation when the investigations on the ferry’s sinking weren’t complete, and the courts were still trying perpetrators, including the captain of the ferry.

The government’s compensation at the time amounted to 60 million to 70 million won per survivor.

A lower court ruled in January 2019 that the survivors and their families must be compensated for the trauma they experienced due to the neglect by the crew, the Coast Guard and the company that owned the ship.

The ferry was found to have been overloaded at the time of its sinking.

At the time of the lower court’s ruling, there were 76 plaintiffs. Of them, 55 decided to file an appeal.

Some 19 of the 55 are survivors, 16 of them Danwon High School students.

Upon the sentence on Wednesday, lawyer Kim Do-hyun, who defended the plaintiffs, told reporters that he regretted the court decided to dismiss their request for compensation for secondary damage caused by illegal military surveillance.

Two military officers of the now-defunct Defense Security Command were sentenced for spying on families of Sewol ferry victims in 2020. The court said the officers were guilty of ordering their subordinates to spy on the families to find dirt on them regarding their political leanings or economic situation, as then Park Geun-hye administration faced escalating public criticism for its failure to respond promptly to the disaster.

The two officers, along with officials once tried for neglect of duty in the disaster, including former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and former presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon, were included in President Yoon Suk Yeol's special pardons list ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Bereaved families of the Sewol victims criticized the decision on Wednesday.

The latest ruling on the compensation suit by Sewol victims garnered public attention also due to discussions between the bereaved families of the Itaewon crowd crush and the government on national compensation.

President Yoon told reporters during his visit to Cambodia on Nov. 13 in 2022 that the government was looking into the legal feasibility of providing national compensation for the victims of the crowd crush and their families.

The crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Itaewon on Oct. 29, 2022, killed 159 people and injured 196 others. More than half of those killed were in their 20s.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]