🔎 Case Summary

The court held that a teacher’s death after collapsing while playing badminton during a training period did not qualify as a work-related injury, rejecting the surviving spouse’s claim for line-of-duty survivor benefits. The decision turned on the absence of a sufficient causal nexus between the death and official duties.


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🧾 Facts

The deceased teacher (A) collapsed while playing badminton near home during an official training period under the Educational Public Officials Act.

A was hospitalized and later died from cardiac arrest caused by a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The spouse (B) applied for line-of-duty survivor benefits, asserting the death resulted from work-related stress accumulated over years of teaching.

In February 2024, the Ministry of Personnel Management denied the claim, citing constitutional or pre-existing health factors rather than work-related overwork or stress.

An administrative appeal was dismissed in March 2025, prompting litigation.



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⚖️ Court’s Reasoning

Medical causation: Subarachnoid hemorrhage is commonly linked to ruptured cerebral aneurysms, often associated with hypertension and age (40s–60s), and may be triggered by sudden spikes in blood pressure during strenuous activity.

Personal risk factors: At the time of onset, A was 57 years old and had hypertension. The collapse occurred during vigorous exercise, not during work.

Workload analysis:

No overtime in the six months preceding the incident.

A month-long winter break with no work, followed by brief work and then training immediately before the event.

The court found no chronic overwork or acute, work-related trigger proximate to the death.


Stress allegations: While acknowledging that A likely experienced some occupational stress over a long teaching career (including distress from a past illegal filming incident at a prior school), the court found no evidence of a sudden or extraordinary work-related event near the time of death that could establish causation.



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🧠 Holding

The denial of survivor benefits was lawful.

The required substantial causal relationship between public service and death was not established.



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📌 Takeaways

Training periods do not automatically render all incidents work-related.

Courts demand temporal proximity and specificity: long-term stress alone, without a clear, proximate work trigger, is insufficient.

Medical risk factors and activity at onset can decisively break the causal chain in work-related injury claims.

Article: https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/Case-curation/214859