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Seoul court recognizes Samsung employee's alcohol poisoning as work-related accident

Published: 21 Sep. 2025, 20:07 Updated: 22 Sep. 2025, 12:29

An image of a statue of Justitia, the goddess of justice [KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]

A Seoul court ruled that the death of a Samsung Electronics employee who suffered acute alcohol poisoning after attending three consecutive hoesik (work dinners) should be recognized as a work-related accident, legal sources said Sunday.

The Seoul Administrative Court sided with the man’s family in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service’s decision to deny survivors’ benefits and funeral expenses. Hoesik is a Korean workplace tradition of after-work gatherings among colleagues, usually involving food and alcohol.

The employee worked in overseas sales management at a Samsung Electronics division. In July 2022, his family found him dead in his car in the parking lot of his home. An autopsy concluded that he died from acute alcohol poisoning. Investigators found that he had attended dinner hoesik and drank alcohol on three consecutive nights before his death.

On the first night, he entertained department store representatives with colleagues, and each drank two to three glasses of wine. The following evening, at a company-hosted dinner, 36 participants consumed 34 bottles of soju and 46 bottles of beer. On the final night, he organized a farewell dinner for locally hired foreign staff scheduled to depart the next day, where five people drank two to three bottles of whiskey, two bottles of soju and two bottles of Hwayo, a distilled soju made from organic rice.

He was found dead around 5 a.m. the next morning. His wife applied for survivors’ benefits and funeral expenses, arguing that his death constituted an industrial accident. The compensation agency rejected the claim, saying he had paid the last dinner bill out of his own pocket and chosen the restaurant himself, which it argued made the gathering a private event. The family filed suit.

The court ruled in the family’s favor.

The photo shows Samsung Digital City in Suwon, Gyeonggi. [SAMSUNG]

“We recognize that the deceased died from acute alcohol poisoning caused by drinking over three consecutive days at gatherings related to his work,” the court said. “A significant causal relationship exists between his work and death.”

The court determined that the final dinner played the most direct role in the acute alcohol poisoning and concluded that the gathering was work-related.

“As a member of the overseas sales team, the deceased had to maintain close cooperation with locally hired employees,” the court said. “In particular, with an overseas business trip scheduled for the following month, he needed their support to carry out his duties effectively.”

The court added that although colleagues of similar or slightly higher rank attended, he would have found it difficult to refuse drinks offered in the spirit of congratulating him on his upcoming trip. The court also noted that the 1 million won ($715) dinner bill was too large to be considered a mere private gathering.

"We could have used our team budget for the dinner, but since we wanted to treat them well, we went somewhere more expensive and decided to pay ourselves," one colleague testified.

The court also pointed out that drinking at the two earlier dinners contributed to his death.

“According to testimony, the deceased made sure foreign employees did not feel left out, so he drank heavily among the national representatives throughout the night,” the court said. “It can be assumed that his blood alcohol level rose further as he continued to drink before alcohol from the previous night had been fully broken down.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHOI SEO-IN [[email protected]]