Open Decision Ledger · Labour & industrial accidents
Adequate causation between work stress and death by suicide
Supreme Court, May 10, 2019, 2016Du59010 (judgment)
No holding summary · checked against points at issue. The official text publishes no summary of the holding for this decision. The quotation and factors in this record are copied verbatim from the points at issue; the evidence for each axis is taken from the points at issue, the order and the reasons.
Case name: 유족급여및장의비부지급처분취소
Official text on the National Law Information Center
Question
Where a worker died by suicide, when may adequate causation be recognised between the worker's work and the death, and do the worker's personal vulnerability or the absence of psychotic symptoms shortly before suicide change that?
Holding
Adequate causation may be recognised where the work caused the illness, or where overwork or work stress overlapped as a principal cause of the illness's onset or aggravation, and the illness left the worker without normal powers of perception, choice or mental restraint, so that suicide followed in a state in which rational judgement could not be expected. The degree and symptoms of the illness, the recovery prospects, age, physical and psychological situation, the circumstances surrounding the worker and the course leading to suicide must be weighed together. Personal vulnerability or the absence of psychotic symptoms shortly before suicide does not change that conclusion, and on these facts adequate causation between the deceased's work and his death could be recognised.
Points at issue, verbatim
갑이 극심한 업무상 스트레스로 인한 우울증으로 정상적인 인식능력이나 행위선택능력, 정신적 억제력이 현저히 저하된 정신장애 상태에 빠져 자살에 이르게 된 것이라고 봄이 타당하므로 갑의 업무와 사망 사이에 상당인과관계를 인정할 수 있음에도, 이와 달리 본 원심판단에 법리를 오해한 위법이 있다고 한 사례
Unofficial English translation
it is reasonable to regard A as having fallen into a mental disorder state in which his normal capacity for perception, capacity to choose an act, and mental inhibitory capacity were significantly impaired due to depression caused by extreme work-related stress, and as having thereby come to commit suicide, and accordingly adequate causation may be recognized between A's Work and death; a case holding that the determination of the court below, which held otherwise, was erroneous in misunderstanding the legal principle
Disposition
Reversed and remanded Stated in the decision
원심판결을 파기하고, 사건을 서울고등법원에 환송한다.
Unofficial English translation
The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court.
Form of the test
Circumstances weighed Stated in the decision
자살자의 질병 내지 후유증상의 정도, 그 질병의 일반적 증상, 요양기간, 회복가능성 유무, 연령, 신체적·심리적 상황, 자살자를 에워싸고 있는 주위상황, 자살에 이르게 된 경위 등을 종합적으로 고려하여야 한다
Unofficial English translation
the degree of the suicidal person's disease or residual symptoms, the general symptoms of that disease, the period of convalescence, whether recovery is possible, age, physical and psychological circumstances, the surrounding circumstances enveloping the suicidal person, and the course by which the suicide came about, etc. must be comprehensively considered
Factors
- 자살행위로 사망한 근로자의 업무와 사망 사이에 상당인과관계가 있다고 할 수 있는 경우
- 상당인과관계를 인정하기 위해서 고려해야 할 사항
- 극심한 업무상 스트레스로 인한 우울증으로 정상적인 인식능력이나 행위선택능력, 정신적 억제력이 현저히 저하된 정신장애 상태에 빠져 자살에 이르게 된 것이라고 봄이 타당하므로
- 망인의 개인적인 취약성이 자살을 결의하게 된 데 영향을 미치거나
- 자살 직전 정신병적 증상에 이르지 않았다고 하여 달리 볼 것인지 여부(소극)
Unofficial English translation
• Cases in which adequate causation may be recognized between the work of an employee who died by an act of suicide and the death
• The matters that must be considered in order to recognize adequate causation
• it is reasonable to regard the person as having fallen into a mental disorder state in which the normal capacity for perception, capacity to choose an act, and mental inhibitory capacity were significantly impaired due to depression caused by extreme work-related stress, and as having thereby come to commit suicide, and accordingly
• the deceased's personal vulnerability affected the decision to commit suicide, or
• whether the matter should be viewed differently on the ground that the deceased did not reach psychotic symptoms immediately prior to the suicide (negative)
Relation to precedent
Follows earlier decisions Stated in the decision
대법원 2017. 5. 31. 선고 2016두58840 판결(공2017하, 1402)
Unofficial English translation
Supreme Court Decision 2016Du58840 decided May 31, 2017 (Gong 2017 Ha, 1402)
Decisions referred to
[1] 대법원 2017. 5. 11. 선고 2016두57502 판결, 대법원 2017. 5. 31. 선고 2016두58840 판결(공2017하, 1402)
Burden of proof
Not addressed Not in the decision
Open question and revisit condition
Where the worker's depression had causes other than work, how is it decided that overwork or work stress was a principal cause of the illness's onset?
The judgment of the Seoul High Court on remand, deciding whether these facts meet the causation test the Court restated, would show how the standard works in practice. A later Supreme Court decision changing the test on adequate causation for suicide, or an amendment to Article 37(1) of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, would call for this entry to be read again.
Cross-family AI independent reading & axis check
8 of 8 axes matched GPT-6 Astra (OpenAI, codex CLI) · 2026-10-25
A reader from another model family (GPT-6 Astra), given the official text but not the primary reading, agreed on all 8 axes.
Raw responses and comparison record: Protocol · Blind readings (JSONL) · Axis comparison (JSONL) · SHA-256 (JSON)
Lower-court contrast & scope of application
Lower-court reading vs. Supreme Court holding
Lower-court context: The Seoul High Court, in its judgment of 20 October 2016 (2016Nu53564), did not recognise adequate causation between the deceased's work and his death, so the refusal of survivor benefits and funeral expenses was left in place. It did not look closely at the cause and degree of the work stress the deceased bore, how his depression arose or his mental state near the suicide, and held that the stress he was exposed to was not so extreme as to induce or aggravate depression.
Supreme Court standard: The Supreme Court held that the court below had misread the law on the causation between work and death in an industrial accident and had failed to carry out the deliberation the case required, an error affecting the judgment. On the facts it found that the deceased, who had served about 20 years and 2 months and handled tax and funds work as a team leader, fell into a mental disorder from depression caused by extreme work stress after the Board of Audit and Inspection demanded discipline over a loss of about KRW 1.724 billion, so adequate causation could be recognised. It reversed the whole judgment and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court on the unanimous opinion of the participating Justices.
Distinguishing conditions
- A case in which overwork or work stress did not overlap as a principal cause of the illness's onset or aggravation, and the illness had other origins.
- A suicide in which the worker's normal powers of perception, choice or mental restraint were not lacking or markedly reduced.
- A death at work that was not caused by the worker's own act of suicide.
Record verification notes
Set the file against the circumstances the Court listed for weighing adequate causation, and against the reasons it read the suicide as impulsive, namely the absence of a suicide note and the use of a rope left for hikers. The findings rested on the first-instance reasons adopted by the court below and on evidence lawfully admitted, so check the psychiatric and neurological opinions in the record and the sequence of the audit, the demand for discipline and the threatened promotion and recourse claims. Note that the Court cited Supreme Court Decision 2016Du58840 for the point that personal vulnerability does not change the outcome.
From the official text
Points at issue
[1] 자살행위로 사망한 근로자의 업무와 사망 사이에 상당인과관계가 있다고 할 수 있는 경우 및 상당인과관계를 인정하기 위해서 고려해야 할 사항 / 망인의 개인적인 취약성이 자살을 결의하게 된 데 영향을 미치거나 자살 직전 정신병적 증상에 이르지 않았다고 하여 달리 볼 것인지 여부(소극) [2] 서울메트로에 ○○팀장으로 근무하던 갑이 감사원의 감사 결과 회사에 약 17억여 원의 손실을 입혔다는 이유로 문책 요구를 받고, 승진누락과 구상권에 대한 생각에 극심한 스트레스로 불안감과 우울증세를 보이다가 자살한 사안에서, 갑이 극심한 업무상 스트레스로 인한 우울증으로 정상적인 인식능력이나 행위선택능력, 정신적 억제력이 현저히 저하된 정신장애 상태에 빠져 자살에 이르게 된 것이라고 봄이 타당하므로 갑의 업무와 사망 사이에 상당인과관계를 인정할 수 있음에도, 이와 달리 본 원심판단에 법리를 오해한 위법이 있다고 한 사례
Unofficial English translation
[1] Cases in which adequate causation may be recognized between the work of an employee who died by an act of suicide and the death, and the matters that must be considered in order to recognize adequate causation / whether the matter should be viewed differently on the ground that the deceased's personal vulnerability affected the decision to commit suicide or that the deceased did not reach psychotic symptoms immediately prior to the suicide (negative) [2] A, who worked as an ○○ team leader at Seoul Metro, was requested to be disciplined on the ground that, as a result of an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, he had caused the company a loss of approximately 1.7 billion won, and, suffering from extreme stress over being passed over for promotion and over thoughts concerning the right to reimbursement, showed symptoms of anxiety and depression and then committed suicide; in such a case, it is reasonable to regard A as having fallen into a mental disorder state in which his normal capacity for perception, capacity to choose an act, and mental inhibitory capacity were significantly impaired due to depression caused by extreme work-related stress, and as having thereby come to commit suicide, and accordingly adequate causation may be recognized between A's Work and death; a case holding that the determination of the court below, which held otherwise, was erroneous in misunderstanding the legal principle
Summary of the holding
The official text publishes no summary of the holding for this decision. The quotation and factors in this record are copied verbatim from the points at issue; the evidence for each axis is taken from the points at issue, the order and the reasons.
Order
원심판결을 파기하고, 사건을 서울고등법원에 환송한다.
Unofficial English translation
The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Seoul High Court.
Provisions referred to
[1] 산업재해보상보험법 제37조 제1항 [2] 산업재해보상보험법 제37조 제1항
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