Court Rules Workers' Compensation Corporation Acted Illegally by Withholding Pneumoconiosis Pension
A worker battling pneumoconiosis (an occupational disease in which dust damages the lungs) took his own life at a coal mine, and a court has recognized the death as work-related. The Seoul Administrative Court's Division 10 (Presiding Judge Jung Eun-young) recently ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Mr. A's survivors against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, seeking to overturn the decision denying survivors' pneumoconiosis benefits and funeral expenses.
The survivors claimed survivors' pneumoconiosis benefits and funeral expenses, but the corporation refused to pay, saying it was difficult to establish a causal link between the pneumoconiosis and the death. After a request for review was rejected by the Review Committee, the survivors challenged the decision through administrative litigation.
In court, the survivors argued that after being diagnosed with pneumoconiosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the deceased suffered worsening breathing difficulties, sleep disorders, and anxiety disorder, and that shortly before his death, his mental condition deteriorated further due to symptoms related to pneumothorax, a complication of pneumoconiosis, before he took his own life. Their argument was that the death had a substantial causal relationship with the occupational disease of pneumoconiosis.
The court accepted this argument. It found that the deceased is presumed to have taken his own life in circumstances where a mental illness stemming from occupational pneumoconiosis had worsened to the point that reasonable judgment could not be expected, and therefore the death had a substantial causal relationship with his work. The court noted that Mr. A had undergone a long period of medical care for pneumoconiosis, was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, sleep disorder, and depressive symptoms, and that his condition worsened sharply starting a year before his death as his lung function rapidly deteriorated. It also found that, considering that Mr. A was told by medical staff that his lung disease would not improve and described daily life as too hard and exhausting, he was highly likely to have fallen into deep despair and helplessness.
A court-appointed medical expert opined that there was a reasonable likelihood that the fear stemming from multiple severe lung diseases occurring simultaneously, the worsening of an illness with no hope of recovery, and the suffering from a prolonged battle with disease contributed to the suicide, and the court used this opinion as a basis for its ruling.
With this ruling overturning the corporation's denial decision, a path has been opened for the survivors to receive survivors' pneumoconiosis benefits and funeral expenses.
