The Supreme Court ruled that five public and private corporations responsible for the hydrogen storage tank project at the Gangwon Province Gangneung Science Industrial Complex, where an explosion occurred in 2019, must compensate the businesses affected by the incident with over 10 billion won.
According to the legal community on the 31st, the Supreme Court's Civil Division 3 (Chief Justice Lee Sook-yeon) upheld the second-instance ruling in a damages lawsuit filed by 34 businesses in the industrial complex against the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute (KETEP) and the Korea Gas Safety Corporation (KGS), ordering that "KETEP and KGS must compensate the affected companies a total of over 10 billion won" at the end of last month.
In May 2019, an explosion occurred in a hydrogen storage tank that was undergoing trial operation in an industrial complex in Gangwon Province, Gangneung, resulting in the deaths of two people and injuries to six. The companies that suffered property damage filed a lawsuit for damages amounting to 7.5 billion won in September 2020, claiming that related agencies, including KETEP and KGS, were negligent in their management, leading to the incident.
The first-instance court ordered KETEP and KGS to compensate the affected businesses a total of over 8.8 billion won. The first-instance court stated, "The production facility where the accident occurred was powered by electricity generated by solar or wind energy due to the local characteristics, so the electricity supplied could fall short of the rated capacity." It added, "Despite being able to reasonably foresee such a situation, related agencies failed to install devices such as rectifiers, oxygen monitors, and oxygen removers to prevent it.
The court pointed out that KETEP was negligent for concluding agreements with a company lacking the capability to establish and conduct trial operations of the hydrogen production facility and poorly assessing the operational capacity during the transition to another company. The court also noted that KGS was negligent for failing to notify KETEP of issues with the production and storage facilities.
Both the affected businesses and the related agencies appealed the first-instance ruling. However, the second-instance court dismissed all appeals, finding no issues with the first-instance ruling. Nevertheless, the compensation amount increased to over 10 billion won, including additional interest accrued during the appellate process. Both sides appealed the second-instance ruling, but the Supreme Court dismissed all appeals and upheld the second-instance ruling.