“I got my license and got a job”… “Unfair disposition” in the decision to downgrade the disability level

Corporation downgrades “Workers who drove and worked after being judged as disabled…not 100% losing their workforce”
The court said, “It is only a matter of circumstances after the disposition… It cannot be seen that there was a flaw in the decision at the time.”

The court ruled that it was illegal to cancel a valid existing decision based solely on circumstances that occurred after the administrative disposition was issued.

Last January, the Ulsan District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Mr. A, a man in his 60s, against the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service to cancel the disability rating decision.

Mr. A suffered a fall accident while working in 2006 and was diagnosed with spinal cord damage and paralysis of the lower extremities. Afterwards, in 2008, he was judged to have a disability level of 2, and the same grade was maintained during the re-examination six years later in 2014.

The problem arose seven years later when Mr. A received his disability rating readjusted once again. This is because the Corporation canceled the existing level 2 disability level and downgraded it to level 3.

The corporation took issue with the fact that Mr. A passed the driver's license aptitude test after being reexamined in 2014, drove on his own, and even got a job for a certain period of time. This is because a level 2 decision, which means a 100% labor loss rate, is inappropriate as work is actually possible.

In response, Mr. A protested, saying that the corporation canceled the existing disposition without any legal basis. In addition, an administrative lawsuit was filed, arguing that the level 2 rating should be maintained instead of level 3 because the patient still requires frequent nursing care.

The court ruled in Mr. A’s favor. First, the court explained, “If there is a defect in the administrative act, it can be canceled even if there is no separate legal basis,” but “The defendant’s suggestion of passing the driver’s license aptitude test, temporary employment, etc. are all circumstances that occurred after the disposition of the disability grade, so it is difficult to acknowledge that Mr. A’s disability grade at the time of disposition was less than Grade 2.”

At the same time, he added, “The medical records appraiser also concluded that patients with partial spinal paralysis may show improvement and the degree of paralysis may change over time,” and added, “There is no objective data to suggest that the determination of disability status at the time of the initial judgment and retrial was wrong.”

Attorney Hwang Gyu-hwa of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A, explained, “According to the Supreme Court, the reason for the cancellation of an administrative action refers to a defect that existed at the time the relevant disposition was issued,” adding, “We were able to win the case by emphasizing that all the issues raised by the Corporation were only circumstances after the disposition was issued and were not defects at the time of the decision.”

Reporter Kim Hee-guk kukie@kookje.co.kr

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“Because I got my license and got a job”… “Unfair disposition” in the decision to downgrade the disability level (Shortcut)