Yu Jae-bang

Yu Jae-bang (劉載邦, March 28, 1920 – April 29, 2009) was a South Korean jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Korea.¹

Life

Born in 1920 in Wolpyeong-ri, Sinbuk-ri,² Yeongam County, Jeollanam-do, as the only son of three generations,³ he graduated from Gwangju Public Agricultural School in 1939 and from Gyeongseong Law College in 1942. In 1943 he passed the Japanese higher civil service examination in the judicial category. On October 27, 1947, he was appointed a judge of the Gwangju District Court, and thereafter served as head judge of the Juvenile Division of the Gwangju District Court in 1951; presiding judge of the Daegu High Court in 1954; presiding judge of the Gwangju District Court on October 5, 1954;⁴ presiding judge of the Gwangju High Court on July 27, 1956; chief presiding judge of the Gwangju High Court on January 26, 1960;⁵ the 7th presiding judge of the Jeonju District Court in 1960; the 9th presiding judge of the Daegu District Court from November 3, 1960, to 1961; the 8th presiding judge of the Busan District Court from August 26, 1961, to 1964;⁶ and the 12th presiding judge of the Daegu High Court from March 21, 1964, until 1968. In December 1968, he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court by President Park Chung-hee.⁷ However, in a case concerning the State Compensation Act, which did not recognize state liability for damages to military personnel and civilian employees in connection with the massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War, he presented the majority opinion (nine justices) recognizing the state's liability for damages. This influenced his exclusion from the reappointment process for judges on March 24, 1973.⁸

While serving as a judge, from 1954 to 1960 he lectured at Chonnam National University and Chosun University, and he published a paper titled "Controversial Points of the Cross-Examination System."

While serving as chief presiding judge of the Gwangju High Court, on April 27, 1959, he held a hearing in the Hampyeong ballot-swapping case,⁹ in which six former police officers, from patrolman to sergeant, who consistently denied having swapped ballots, stated that they felt "pangs of conscience" and would disclose the fact that they had swapped ballots; the sentencing date was postponed indefinitely.¹⁰ However, at the hearing held on June 8, they argued that "we are officials of the ruling party, so we falsified the valid ballots of Kim Bong-su, the opposition candidate, into invalid ballots and tore open the ballot box in order to defeat him, which is true, but the ballot swapping was only attempted." Nevertheless, on June 15 he held the sentencing hearing¹¹ and sentenced Patrolman Jeong Chan-eop (37) and Sergeant Jeong Sun-gi (35) to four months in prison with immediate detention, and sentenced the others, Im Gil-su (33), Ji Ju-hae (39), Go Gwang-yong (38) sergeant, and Eo Tak (32) patrolman, to four months in prison with a one-year suspended sentence.

While serving as a judge in the criminal division of the Supreme Court, on March 30, 1969, he confirmed a guilty verdict in the retrial appeal of the East Berlin incident.¹² After moving to the civil division, on July 8, 1969, in the final appeal ruling on a wage claim lawsuit brought by union members of the Sintanjin Tobacco Manufacturing Plant against the state, he stated that "when paying overtime, special work, and holiday work allowances to union members working in state institutions such as the monopoly, postal, and railway services, the State Public Officials Act must be applied prior to the Labor Standards Act," and overturned the lower court's ruling ordering payment of unpaid wages under the Labor Standards Act.¹³ On June 13, 1972, in the final appeal ruling on a damages suit brought against the state by eight members of the family of a Mr. Kim, he stated that "calculating damages claimed against the state on the basis of actual income without deducting earned income tax violates the Income Tax Act," overturned the lower court's ruling, and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court.¹⁴ On March 20, 1973, he ruled that "facts concerning prior convictions are, in the strict sense, distinct from facts of criminal conduct and may be recognized on the defendant's confession alone."¹⁵

After leaving the Supreme Court, he served as the representative attorney of the Deogsu Joint Law Office, a law firm, and then opened the Yu Jae-bang Law Office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, where he worked mainly on civil cases as an attorney. He also served as an advisory attorney to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Yu, who handled 50 to 70 court-appointed defense cases each year and provided free legal consultation services for more than ten years, received the Hongjo Sosung Medal in 1963. Subsequently, on December 10, 1986, at the 38th Human Rights Day, he received the Order of Civil Merit, Mugunghwa Medal, for his contribution to realizing social justice and expanding human rights through free legal consultation. In his acceptance remarks, he said that he felt "more humbled than honored," and stated, "The foundation of our lives is a democratic system. Isn't national security the fence that protects the framework of this democracy? Therefore, democracy and security must be nurtured equally."¹⁶ While serving as a Supreme Court justice, Yu visited the Korean Military Assistance Command, Vietnam together with Bang Soon-won, Hong Nam-pyo, and Min Mun-gi.¹⁷

He died of a prolonged illness on April 29, 2009. His survivors include his son Yu Dong-ho, CEO of Shinwoo Publishing; his son Yu In-ho, CEO of Anyang Plaza; his son-in-law, attorney Hwang In-haeng; and Oh Hyun-ju (director of Oh Pediatric Clinic).¹⁸

Footnotes

Footnotes

1. 경향신문, April 30, 2009; 뉴시스, April 29, 2009; 한국경제신문, April 30, 2009 ↩

2. 신북출신 유재방 전 대법관 별세 ↩

3. 경향신문, November 21, 1968 ↩

4. 동아일보, October 7, 1954 ↩

5. 동아일보, January 27, 1960 ↩

6. 경향신문, August 27, 1961 ↩

7. 동아일보, November 20, 1968 ↩

8. 동아일보, November 2, 1985 ↩

9. 특종! 세상을 일깨우다정읍·함평 환표사건] ↩

10. 동아일보, April 28, 1959 ↩

11. 동아일보, June 15, 1959 ↩

12. 동아일보, April 1, 1969 ↩

13. 경향신문, July 9, 1969 ↩

14. 동아일보, June 14, 1972 ↩

15. [1]