State Ordered to Pay 9 Bln Won to HDC Hyundai for Selling Contaminated Former U.S. Base Site

The Seoul Central District Court (Image courtesy of Yonhap)

SEOUL, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A Seoul court ordered the state to pay HDC Hyundai Development Co. around 9 billion won (US$6.6 million) in compensation for selling a plot of land used as a former U.S. Army base without decontaminating the soil, judicial officials said Tuesday.

In 2016, HDC Hyundai purchased the former Camp Laguardia site in Uijeongbu, a city just north of Seoul, for 44.6 billion won from the state to build a residential and commercial complex.

But during a detailed soil survey to get approval for the business plan, excessive amounts of fluorine and zinc were detected above the concerning level.

Following city orders, HDC Hyundai had to halt the construction and undergo purification procedures for the pollutants. The company then filed a suit against the state seeking 9.3 billion won for the expenses they spent in the process.

The state, however, denied its responsibility, saying it had sufficiently conducted an investigation into the pollutants and purified the soil after it was returned by the U.S. military.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of the construction company, saying the state failed to fulfill its obligation under the contract.

The court also said pollutants, such as lead and fluorine, had not been found during the state-led survey, regarding it as evidence that the purification process had not been conducted evenly across the entire plot of land.

(Yonhap)