'Principal's death on retirement day is not in line of duty'
The Seoul Administrative Court said Wednesday that it could not recognize the death of a school principal, who died in a car accident on the day of his retirement, as death in the line of duty, due to strict regulations on the time of retirement. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon
By Kim Jae-heun
The Seoul Administrative Court said Wednesday that it could not recognize the death of a school principal, who died in a car accident on the day of his retirement, as death in the line of duty, due to strict regulations on the time of retirement.
The court recently ruled against the bereaved family who asked it to cancel the Government Employees Pension Service's (GEPS) refusal to pay compensation for the principal's death.
The principal of an elementary school was to retire on Feb. 28. 2018. On his final days at work, he filled in for the coach of the school's volleyball team who could not attend off-season training from Feb. 26 to 28.
But on Feb. 28, he was involved in a fatal car accident at 1:30 p.m. on his way back home using his own car, not the students' bus.
The GEPS refused to pay the compensation, saying the principal's status as a civil servant expired as of 12 a.m. on the day of his retirement (Feb. 28) citing the relevant law.
The bereaved family argued that not recognizing the principal's death on the day of retirement as a death in the line of duty was a violation of the country's duty to “protect a person who spent his whole life serving in the education field.” They added it also went "against common sense.”
However, the court said that although it understood the family's argument, it could not recognize the case as a death in the line of his duty because it was important to respect the law with no exceptions.
“The start and end of a person's civil servant status should be decided clearly by the law because civil servants hold not only rights but also duties, and the state can't change these at its own discretion,” the court said.