Popular Actor Loses $3 Million Damages Lawsuit Against Bullying Accuser, Ordered To Pay All Legal Fees
Actor Jo Byung Kyu lost the damages lawsuit he filed against a whistleblower who raised allegations of school violence.
On the 1st of November, according to Herald Economy, Jo Byung Kyu lost the first trial in which he demanded A, the whistleblower who previously raised school violence allegations, to pay 4,064,166,667 won [$2,843,844] in damages.
The 37th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Sang Won) ruled, “It is difficult to conclude that the exposure post is false,” dismissing all of Jo Byung Kyu’s claims and ordering him to bear all court costs.
In 2021, A posted on social media that he had experienced school violence by Jo Byung Kyu while studying in New Zealand. Prior to this, there had been three school violence allegations against Jo Byung Kyu since 2018. A claimed to be the fourth victim of school violence.
In response, Jo Byung Kyu and his agency at the time engaged in a dispute, stating, “It is groundless.” Later, A said, “I will verify it with a 10 billion won bet,” but then deleted the post. Of the three previous claims, two posts were voluntarily deleted by their authors, and one author admitted the post was false.
Subsequently, Jo Byung Kyu filed a criminal complaint against A for defamation, but it was not prosecuted because A was in New Zealand and could not be contacted, and the facts could not be verified.
At the same time, Jo Byung Kyu filed a civil suit against A for damages in the 4 billion won range. However, because A was in New Zealand, he did not submit documents for the trial, and the court could only examine evidence submitted by Jo Byung Kyu. The court stated, “Based solely on the evidence submitted by Jo Byung Kyu, it is difficult to conclude that the content of the post by A is false.”
As grounds, the court explained, “It appears that Jo Byung Kyu’s acquaintance had conversations with A about this incident over six months, but no messages were submitted as evidence showing that A admitted posting false information to the acquaintance.”
During the trial, Jo Byung Kyu’s side argued, “A deleted the post, admitting it was false,” but the court did not accept this, noting that A seemed to have deleted it out of fear of having to respond to the criminal and damages lawsuits.
The court stated, “Even considering the difficulty of proving that certain facts do not exist, the evidence submitted by Jo Byung Kyu alone is insufficient to prove that the content of the post did not exist.”
Jo Byung Kyu immediately appealed. The second trial will be handled at the Seoul High Court.
Meanwhile, Jo Byung Kyu debuted in 2015 with KBS 2TV ‘Who Are You: School 2015.’ After gaining recognition through JTBC ‘SKY Castle,’ he received much love through SBS ‘Stove League’ and OCN ‘The Uncanny Counter.’ In September, he announced the end of his exclusive contract with his longtime agency HB Entertainment.
Source: (A)
