This undated file photo shows the Supreme Court in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The top court has opened the way for the beneficiaries of those who commit suicide in a state of deep depression to be eligible for insurance payouts.
Thus far, the beneficiaries of policyholders who commit suicide have been excluded from the payment of insurance money.
According to the latest report from the Korea Insurance Research Institute, the Supreme Court in February ruled in favor of a policyholder who committed a suicide due to deep depression, limiting the insurance company’s privilege of exemption from the payment of insurance money.
This suit was filed by the father of a female elementary school teacher who committed suicide after suffering from severe depression. The father filed a suit to get the insurance money from the public employee group life insurance program.
After being verbally abused by a student’s parents, the female teacher suffered her first depression symptoms and committed suicide in Oct. 2011 after a series of hospital visits and treatments.
The terms and conditions of the insurance product for which the female teacher had contracted stipulated that any benefits would be waived in the case of suicide.
However, the policy also had a provision that obliged the insurance company to pay for claims if the insured committed suicide in a state where free decision-making was not possible due to mental disorder or insanity.
In the first and second trial of this case, the claim of the plaintiff was dismissed as the female teacher was not interpreted as being in a state where she was not able to freely make decisions.
The Supreme Court, however, overturned the lower court decisions, ruling that the suicide of the female teacher did not equate to the cause of exemption for the insurance company on the basis of grounds that the symptoms of the teacher belonged to severe depression disorder and she was diagnosed as having cognitive distortion before committing suicide.
In addition, the court noted that the medical standards of judgment on the relation between severe depression disorder and suicide has already been established.
Nonetheless, the plaintiff’s claim for payment of insurance money was finally dismissed since the claim was filed after the two year filing deadline.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
