법무법인(유한) 율촌 | Yulchon LLC

Yulchon successfully defended an automotive parts manufacturer and its CEO against all charges in a criminal case involving a fatal workplace accident. The incident occurred when an employee of the company’s in-house subcontractor was fatally injured by an unauthorized working tool that had been left inside a piece of equipment by another subcontractor employee.

The prosecutor filed indictments against both the company and its CEO on two sets of charges: (i) that they failed to prevent the use of the tool for unintended purposes and did not implement necessary safety measures to mitigate foreseeable hazards prior to the operation of the equipment, constituting a violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (the “OSHA”); and (ii) that they failed to establish a dedicated safety and health management system, did not properly identify and address risk factors in the workplace, and lacked a sufficient number of qualified safety personnel, all of which constituted violations of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (the “SAPA”).

Yulchon argued that the tool used in the accident was not part of the company’s standard operating procedures, and that the company was not reasonably expected to anticipate or prevent the accident. We further demonstrated that even if the clients had realized that the tool was being used, both the company and the CEO should not be held liable as they had fulfilled their obligations under the OSHA and the SAPA to a reasonably foreseeable extent, and that even if there were certain shortcomings in the safety management system, they bore no causal link to the occurrence of this accident.

The court fully accepted our arguments and rendered a not guilty verdict on all counts. This case marks one of the first acquittals under the SAPA since its enactment, and sets a meaningful precedent in the evolving landscape of industrial accident liability.