Lotte founder's mental health disputed in court

By Park Jin-hai

A court hearing on Lotte’s ousted founder Shin Kyuk-ho’s mental health kicked off Wednesday. The hearing is deemed critical to the future course of the retail giant, embroiled in an ownership feud between siblings.

Seoul Family Court, by a request made in December by the founder’s sister Shin Jung-suk, will review his mental health and decide whether his estate requires adult guardianship.

An adult guardian will have the legal authority to care of the personal and property interests of the founder, since the latter is regarded as incapable of looking after his own interests due to incapacity or disability.

Shin’s two sons, Dong-bin and Dong-joo, have made differing claims on their father’s mental health, each claiming to be the legitimate heir of the retail giant that operates both in Korea and Japan.

The mental state of the 93-year-old founder and father of the two heirs has been continuously questioned by inner circles of the group, which Dong-joo contradicted in his claims.

Dong-joo, chairman of SDJ Corporation, was ousted from his management position at Lotte Japan before his father was also sacked from the chairmanship of Lotte Holdings in Japan by his younger brother Dong-bin, who won the approval of board members there. The founding family’s eldest son sued his younger brother at the behest of their father, showing a short clip of the founder signing a document giving him power of attorney.

If the court decides the father requires guardianship, Dong-joo will lose the grounds that his ownership succession was a legitimate decision made by the company’s founder.