Supreme Court: "Client Not Liable as Principal under Occupational Safety Act"

Conviction Finalized for the Construction Contractor

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The Supreme Court has ruled that Korea Midland Power, the principal contractor for the construction of the Shin Seocheon Thermal Power Plant in 2020 where a subcontracted worker died, cannot be held liable as the client under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

On August 9, according to the legal community, the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Seo Kyunghwan) recently overturned the lower court’s guilty verdict for Korea Midland Power and its employees, indicted for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and remanded the case to the Daejeon District Court for a new trial based on a not-guilty judgment. However, the conviction was finalized for Kumho Engineering & Construction, the construction contractor.

Previously, on April 10, 2020, an electrical explosion occurred at the Shin Seocheon Thermal Power Plant construction site in Seocheon County, South Chungcheong Province, resulting in the death of one Kumho Engineering & Construction worker and injuries to three workers from subcontractors.

The prosecution indicted the project owner, Korea Midland Power, Kumho Engineering & Construction, an electrical control company that received a secondary subcontract, and their respective site managers for alleged violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, among other charges, holding them responsible for the accident.

The central issue was whether Korea Midland Power should be regarded as a mere ordering party or as an actual client ultimately responsible for the safety accident.

The first trial court ruled that Korea Midland Power did not have the status of supervising and overseeing the entire construction project and found the company not guilty. However, the appellate court overturned this, ruling Korea Midland Power guilty on the grounds that it had managed and controlled the construction of power plants at 27 sites nationwide and that the project was indispensable to the power business and Korea Midland Power had undertaken substantial safety management, thus affirming its responsibility as the client.

However, the Supreme Court did not accept this. The justices stated that plant operations and construction are distinct enterprises, and that Korea Midland Power could not be considered to have the required expertise for this construction project. The court found that the authority and duty to manage risks related to the prevention of industrial accidents at the construction site rested with Kumho Engineering & Construction.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.