1. Case summary바카라온라인 is a company based in Hong Kong and engaging in distribution and sale of beauty products. 바카라온라인 entered into a logistics contract with a local company in April, 2017. 바카라온라인 delegated Company B to export products to China, manage logistics warehouses and deliver products in China on its behalf.
Afterwards, Company B informed 바카라온라인 several times after signing the logistics contract that, in the course of logistics and transportation, cosmetics were seized by Chinese customs. As Company B was in full charge of business in China, 바카라온라인 had no way of verifying the authenticity of Company B’s claims. Afterwards, during the transaction process, problems such as illegal increase in logistics costs and receipt of illegal money were discovered, and 바카라온라인 terminated the logistics contract with Company B.
In July 2020, 바카라온라인 filed a lawsuit against Company B. 바카라온라인 asserted that it had delegated all tasks relating to transportation and delivery of products to Company B. Company B was obligated to manage products to ensure that there was no loss in the products caused by fire, theft, destruction and deficiency in quantity, in the process of transportation and delivery of the products; otherwise, Company B was liable for damage for 바카라온라인. In the lawsuit, 바카라온라인 demanded Company B to pay about KRW1.5 billion consisting of transportation cost and prices for the products paid by 바카라온라인 to Company in relation to the products allegedly seized by the Chinese customs as well as the outstanding loss of foreign exchange.
We represented 바카라온라인 (the plaintiff) in the lawsuit.
2. Our role and the court’s decisionThe lawsuit was filed in July 2020. Before the decision was rendered in January 2022, there were seven hearing sessions. The parties to the lawsuit made their cases by filing the submissions of financial transaction data and the delivery of evidentiary documents to support their arguments.
During the proceeding, we confirmed the facts that the documents that allegedly executed by the Chinese customs were fabricated and that the notary deed with which Company B provided 바카라온라인 in relation to the seizure of the products by the Chinese customers had been destroyed. We filed charges against the related persons of Company B for the falsification of private documents and exercise thereof (in relation to the fabrication of official documents allegedly executed by the Chinses customers), and the loss and destruction of documents (in relation to the destruction of the notary deed). While the civil lawsuit was pending, we obtained the decision that the police would send the case to the prosecution and Company B was found guilty for the destruction of documents.
In January 2022, the civil court, which confirmed the police’s decision and Company B’s guilt for the destruction of documents, accepted all the claims made by 바카라온라인 on the ground that there was no basis for the court to find Company B’s allegation that the products had been seized by the Chinese customs.
3. ImplicationThe above lawsuit is a representative case that shows that the results of a criminal case have a very large impact on the related civil lawsuits. We clearly highlighted the illegal acts of the other party through the prompt and accurate progress of the relevant criminal case while we proceeded with the civil lawsuit, and the court rendered a judgment without unfairness in favor of 바카라온라인 based on the confirmed facts.
Currently, the above lawsuit has been appealed by Company B and the appeal is in progress. In addition to the above litigation, we are in charge of litigation involving foreign companies and large-scale financial litigation at home and abroad. We plan to continue to draw leading precedents such as the one above.
ㅁ Attorneys in charge: Kang Tae-hun, Seol Jae-sun, Bae Si-woong and Sung Su-in
