By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
A Seoul court ruled Thursday that a golf course builder must compensate a family for restricting access to the family's graveyard.
According to the Seoul Central District Court, a company decided to build a golf course in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, and negotiated with Choi, now deceased, but failed to reach an agreement on terms for relocating Choi's ancestral burial ground.
Choi finally agreed when the company promised to make a path to the burial ground.
However, the builder broke the promise and changed the course design because they wanted the course's 11th hole to be a 654-meter-long par 6 hole, aiming to be the longest hole in the nation. The path was originally planned between the 10th and 11th holes.
After Choi died, the constructor denied making the agreement, and the family graveyard came to be isolated in the golf links. The family had to contact the golf club before visiting its ancestral tomb and take golf carts to the graveyard.
Choi's wife and his four children filed a complaint against the golf club saying a breach of the promise had caused a fall in land value and mental anguish for the family.
"The family graveyard was degraded as it was disconnected from the road, and the golf course should indemnify for 211 million won ($170,000), the drop in land price," the court said in the ruling.
The court also ordered the builder to pay 50 million won as consolation money for mental anguish.
"The builder estimated that the Choi family had no choice but to sell the family burial ground to the golf course and did not fulfill the promise to create a path to the graveyard," the court said.