2023-12-24 06:56:19
Court: “Regardless of your disability, if you have difficulty using public transportation, you must use a call taxi for the disabled.”
A disabled person in a wheelchair is riding a call taxi in Seoul. Hankyoreh file photo
A court ruling held that local governments are liable for damages for not allowing disabled people to use call taxis simply because their lower body disability is not severe, even though their physical condition makes it difficult to use public transportation. Hwang Deok-hyeon (48), who suffered from cervical myelopathy, which causes numbness in the limbs and loss of strength in the legs, applied to the Seoul Facilities Corporation in November 2020 to use a call taxi for the disabled. However, the corporation and the city rejected Mr. Hwang’s application on the grounds that he was not severely disabled from the lower body. This is because although Mr. Hwang is overall a ‘disabled person with a severe degree of disability’, his lower body dysfunction was classified as not severe. Accordingly, Mr. Hwang filed a lawsuit once morest the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Facilities Corporation, requesting permission to use call taxis for the disabled and paying 5 million won in damages. The issue in the trial was whether it was justified for the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the corporation to narrowly interpret ‘disabled in walking’, which is a requirement for disabled call taxi users in the Enforcement Rules of the Transportation Disadvantaged Act, to mean disabled people with severe lower limb dysfunction. The first trial said, “It was illegal for the Corporation to reject (Mr. Hwang’s) application to use a call taxi for the disabled,” but ruled that the defendant was not liable for damages because this restriction was justified to reduce the dispatch interval for call taxis for the disabled. However, the appeals court ruled in Hwang’s favor. On the 21st, the 9th Civil Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Seong Ji-yong) issued a partial ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the corporation to allow Mr. Hwang to use a call taxi for the disabled and pay 3 million won in damages and delay damages. The appeals court said, “If a disabled person with a severe disability in any area finds it difficult to use a bus or subway, it may be difficult to move without using special transportation,” and “The mobility-disadvantaged are not excluded from using special transportation.” “There is a need not to excessively narrow the scope of users.” He also added, “Even if you look at the criteria for determining disability as announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, you cannot find anything distinguishing between ‘severe gait impairment’ and ‘non-severe gait impairment,’ and there is no basis in law.” Attorney Choi Jeong-gyu, who represented this lawsuit, said, “So far, the city of Seoul has arbitrarily classified the severity of walking disabilities to reduce the number of subjects, and has claimed that the rate of meeting the legal standards for call taxis for the disabled has exceeded 100%.” “I hope that the fundamental perception of the Korean government and others will change,” he said. Reporter Lee Jeong-gyu jk@hani.co.kr
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