SEOUL– A Seoul court on Tuesday ruled against the family of a man enslaved to work for Japan during World War II in a damages suit they filed against a Japanese company.
The man, surnamed Kim, was mobilized to work at a construction site operated by Japanese company Nishimatsu Construction in North Hamgyong Province in what is now North Korea in 1942 while the entire Korean peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule, his family said.
Kim died two years later while working at the construction site, and a South Korean government committee in 2006 recognized him as a victim of Japan’s wartime forced labor.
Five family members of Kim filed the civil suit against Nishimatsu in 2019 on behalf of him, seeking about 70 million won (US$55,183) in compensation.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled the statute of limitations on the case already expired as it concluded the damages case against the plaintiffs.
Under the Civil Procedure Act, those claiming damages are entitled to file a lawsuit within three years upon learning of the damage done or its perpetrator, or within 10 years since the damage was inflicted.
The court concluded the three-year statute of limitations on Kim’s case should be counted from May of 2012 when the Supreme Court returned a landmark damages case on forced labor victims to a lower court for retrial in favor of the victims.
The family’s side had claimed their case’s three-year statute of limitations should be counted from 2018 when the Supreme Court made its final ruling on the landmark case ordering Japanese firms to pay compensation to South Korean victims.
Source: Yonhap News Agency