2024-02-14 05:48:45
A light rail vehicle deployed at the Yongin light rail vehicle base on December 29, 2008./Chosun DB
On the 14th, the court ruled that Yongin Mayor and others responsible for the Yongin Light Rail Project at the time should seek compensation for damages. This is the first time that public officials have acknowledged responsibility for budgetary losses caused by the failure of local governments’ private investment projects. This is a ruling that came more than 10 years after a resident lawsuit was filed in October 2013.
On this day, the 10th Administrative Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Seong Soo-je) filed a resident lawsuit filed by eight residents of the ‘Resident Litigation Group for Claiming Compensation for Light Rail Damages in Yongin’ against the mayor of Yongin, saying, “Demand a total of 1 trillion won in damages from those responsible for the light rail project.” In the remand trial, a decision was made in favor of some of the plaintiffs.
The court ruled that Yongin City should claim damages worth about 21.4 billion won from former Mayor Lee Jeong-moon and others who promoted the light rail project at the time. In addition, the Korea Transport Institute, which overcalculated the expected number of users by conducting an incorrect demand forecast survey, also said that 4.3 billion won of this should be compensated.
This lawsuit was the first case in which a large-scale private investment project implemented by a local government was the subject of a resident lawsuit. The first and second trials said, “The Yongin light rail project is not subject to resident lawsuits,” but in July 2020, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case, saying that resident lawsuits were possible.
According to the court ruling, Yongin City is expected to seek compensation for damages from those responsible for the project. A lawyer for the residents who filed the lawsuit said, “It is significant that Yongin City acknowledged its responsibility to compensate the mayor and research institute at the time for making a wrong policy decision.”
1707895956
#Court #Yongin #light #rail #project #failed #demand #billion #won #damages #involved