Hot Food, Tipping Table: Pension Owner Ordered to Pay ₩15.75 Million After Barbecue Table Collapses on Guest
A pension operator whose outdoor barbecue table tipped over onto a guest — causing second-degree burns from hot food — has been ordered to pay ₩15.75 million in damages, with the court finding the operator failed to secure the furniture against foreseeable imbalanced loading. Here are the key points.
Issue
Where a barbecue table with attached bench seating tips over because guests sit on one side only, causing a guest to be burned by hot food, is the pension operator liable for failing to secure the table or provide adequate warnings?
Facts
- In May 2024, A visited a pension in Ganghwa County, Incheon with friends and used the outdoor barbecue area. The table had attached bench seating on both sides.
- A and three or four friends sat together on one side, leaving the opposite bench empty. The table tipped toward A’s side, and hot food on the table fell onto A, causing second-degree burns.
- A sued pension owner B for approximately ₩29.6 million in damages.
Court Decision
- Incheon District Court (Civil Division 9, Judge Jeong Ji-won) issued a partial judgment in A’s favor on August 21, 2026, ordering B to pay approximately ₩15.75 million plus delay interest.
- The court held that in a barbecue setting, people regularly move in and out of seats, and it is entirely foreseeable that multiple guests may sit on only one side of a table at any given moment. Given this foreseeable pattern of use, the operator was obligated to either secure the table to the ground or install other safety measures to prevent it from tipping under uneven load — or at minimum post a clear warning about the risk.
- None of these measures had been taken.
- The operator’s liability was set at 80%, reflecting A’s own contributory negligence in sitting with multiple people on one side without checking the table’s stability.
- Damages comprised approximately ₩4.85 million in medical costs, ₩2.9 million in lost income, and ₩8 million in solatium.
Key Takeaways
- Outdoor furniture at hospitality venues must be designed or secured to withstand foreseeable patterns of use — including asymmetric loading — not just ideal or uniform use.
- Where a specific safety risk is foreseeable, the operator must either eliminate it structurally or provide a clear warning. Neither was done here.
- Contributory negligence by the guest — sitting with multiple people on one side of a table — reduces but does not eliminate operator liability where the operator failed to address a known structural risk.
- The damages calculation in burn injury cases includes medical treatment costs, income lost during recovery, and solatium for pain and psychological suffering — all three categories were recognized here.
Why This Matters
This ruling is a practical reminder for pension, guesthouse, and outdoor hospitality operators that furniture safety is part of the duty of care owed to guests — particularly in settings like barbecue areas where food is hot and guests move around unpredictably. Tables with attached bench seating are inherently susceptible to tipping when loaded asymmetrically, and that susceptibility is foreseeable enough to create an affirmative obligation to address it. For operators reviewing their facilities, the decision suggests that floor anchoring, weighted bases, or at minimum posted warnings about seating balance are not optional — they are the minimum reasonable safety standard.
Article: https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=226387
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