By Na Jeong-ju
A court set the total amount of financial damage caused by the country’s largest-ever oil spill in 2007 off the southwestern coast at 734 billion won ($693 million), the largest amount of damages awarded here, Wednesday, paving the way for fishing communities to receive long-awaited compensation.
However, the court’s assessment could trigger a string of civil lawsuits from residents as well as concerned companies because neither side is satisfied with the amount. This means it may take some time for the residents to get compensation.
This the first court decision since the oil spill, caused by a collision between a barge belonging to Samsung Heavy Industries and the Hebei Spirit, a Hong Kong-registered 146,000-ton supertanker, devastated the environment in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, and nearby areas five years ago.
The damage will be paid by Samsung, Hebei and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC), which deals with compensation issues caused by oil spills on behalf of ship owners. The Korean government will also pay compensation on its own under a special law enacted in 2008 to support the victims.
“We hope this assessment will lead to the settlement of a dispute over the amount of compensation,” said Judge Kim Yong-chul at the Daejeon District Court.
The judge said he considered the direct financial damage to fishermen, tourism losses to local communities, the amount of taxpayers’ money spent to clean up contaminated beaches and other factors in calculating the amount.
The 734 billion won includes the amount of financial losses residents suffered from the oil leak — 413.8 billion won — and some 184.4 billion won the central and local governments spent on clean-up activities.
The court’s assessment of the financial damage on residents is less than 10 percent of the amount of compensation they have demanded. A total of 127,483 people are seeking a total of 4.22 trillion won in compensation.
The IOPC earlier accepted only 57,000 of the individual compensation claims after conducting its own surveys, and set the financial damage for residents at 182.5 billion won. The fund’s assessment prompted a furious reaction from the victims.Residents said they were disappointed with the court’s assessment as well.
“The 413.8 billion won is far from enough to compensate all victims,” said Moon Seung-il, a fisherman who represents residents in Taean. “The court accepted complaints from those who triggered the oil leak, but failed to listen to residents. We don’t understand what principles the court adopted in calculating the damages.”
Moon said he himself filed for compensation amounting to 13 million won ($12,300). However, the court awarded only 460,000 won ($434). The IOPC said it can pay only 82,000 won ($77) to Moon.
Residents worry that it will take much more time to get compensation because there could be a long legal battle.
“Many victims as well as the IOPC could file lawsuits against the court’s assessment because it satisfied nobody. We don’t know when we can end this tragedy,” Moon said.