Seoul Metro found not liable in suit over Sindang Station murder

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday ruled that Seoul Metro is not responsible for a murder by former employee Jeon Joo-hwan at Sindang Station in Seoul in a liability suit filed by the victim’s family.

Jeon Joo-hwan, who murdered a female former colleague in a women's toilet area in Sindang Station in Seoul is referred to the prosecution at the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct in central Seoul in 2022. [YONHAP]

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday ruled that Seoul Metro is not responsible for a murder involving a former employee at Sindang Station in Seoul in a liability suit filed by the victim’s family.

In September 2022, Jeon Joo-hwan, a former Seoul Metro employee, stabbed and killed a female former colleague with a weapon in the women’s toilet area in Sindang Station on Line No. 2.

The plaintiffs, the family of the victim, filed a damages suit against Seoul Metro and Jeon last October. They claimed that the company failed to fulfill its duty to protect workers’ personal information as an employer and should jointly pay 1 billion won ($749,086) along with Jeon as compensation.

Jeon, who was suspended from work at the time of the crime, illegally accessed the corporate intranet multiple times to check the victim’s working schedule.

In the course of the damages suit, Seoul Metro contended that it bears no responsibility regarding the murder as the offense was “unprecedentedly rare” compared to other kinds of offenses, such as verbal abuse or physical assault.

The district court did not specify the legal reasoning for Friday’s ruling.

Last May, the court confirmed that Jeon should be responsible for compensation to the victim’s family in regard to the damages suit. As per Friday's verdict, Jeon is ordered to burden the entire compensation of 1 billion won by himself.

Prior to the murder, he was also facing charges of stalking the victim around 351 times by sending threatening messages and illegally filming her. The murder happened a day before the local district court was set to rule on the penalty for the stalking — an offense for which prosecutors sought nine years of imprisonment.

Last October, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s penalty of a life sentence for Jeon. It also acknowledged that the murder was “retaliatory” and “deliberately planned.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]