The Constitutional Court has referred another trial petition case to its full bench, in which the petitioner seeks to overturn a court's dismissal of an appeal on the grounds that the appellate brief was filed late. This marks the sixth case referred to the full bench since the trial petition system was introduced in March this year.
The Constitutional Court announced Tuesday that its panel of three justices held deliberations and referred to the full bench a trial petition filed by foreign corporation A, which sought to overturn rulings by the Busan High Court and the Supreme Court.
Foreign corporation A, a ship operator, was sued for damages in connection with a collision between a vessel and a cargo handling crane that occurred in October 2022. As serving documents abroad proved difficult because A was a foreign corporation, the first-instance court ordered "service by public notice" — a system in which litigation documents are posted on a court bulletin board and deemed to have been served when direct delivery to a party is difficult — and proceeded with the trial.
The first-instance court ruled against A in August last year, and that ruling was also served through public notice and formally finalized in the same month. After belatedly learning of the ruling, A filed a supplementary appeal in October last year and received a notice of appeal record receipt from the Busan High Court, the appellate court, on November 4. A subsequently applied for an extension of the deadline to submit an appellate brief and obtained a decision on December 15 extending the deadline by one month. Under the Civil Procedure Act, an appellant must submit an appellate brief within 40 days of receiving the notice and may extend the deadline once by one month upon application.
A determined that the extended deadline was January 15 of this year and submitted its appellate brief on that day, but the court dismissed the appeal, ruling that A had missed the deadline. A filed an immediate appeal against the decision, but the Supreme Court also dismissed the case without further review in April this year.
"Dismissing the appeal even though the appellate brief was properly submitted before the court's dismissal decision violates due process principles and infringes on the right to a trial," A said in filing the trial petition on the 23rd of last month.
The number of trial petition cases referred to the full bench concerning appellate brief filing deadlines and appeal dismissals has now risen to three. Two cases that passed preliminary review on the 15th of last month also argued that "dismissing the appeal even though the appellate brief was submitted before the court's decision infringes on the right to a trial and the right to equality." As a result, three cases involving the same issue will now undergo full deliberation by the full bench.
According to the Constitutional Court, a total of 800 trial petition cases had been filed as of the previous day since the trial petition system took effect on March 12. Of these, 676 were dismissed at the preliminary review stage. Including this case, a total of six have passed panel review and been referred to the full bench.
