On November 29th last year, the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 14 rejected all claims of non-performance of obligations and damages filed by Kang Ji-hwan’s former agency against Kang Ji-hwan. Subsequently, on December 22nd last year, the Suwon District Court’s Seongnam Branch canceled the provisional seizure decision for Kang Ji-hwan’s real estate, which had been seized provisionally upon the former agency’s request.
On July 9th, 2019, Kang Ji-hwan was arrested over allegations that he sexually molested and assaulted two of his agency’s female employees at his home.
Kang Ji-hwan stated that he remembered drinking with them but did not remember what happened afterwards.
The court sentenced Kang Ji-hwan to 2 years and 6 months in prison with a suspended sentence of 3 years.
Due to this incident, Kang Ji-hwan stepped down from TV Chosun’s drama “Joseon Survival Period”, which had finished filming up to episode 12. The drama production company Studio Santa Claus filed a lawsuit demanding 6.3 billion won in compensation from Kang Ji-hwan.
The first trial court ruled that Kang Ji-hwan should pay 5.3 billion won plus the delayed interest, of which 600 million won will be paid by his former agency. Kang Ji-hwan appealed against this, but the second trial court also ruled in favor of the production company.
The second trial court ruled that even if Kang Ji-hwan changed agency in the middle of the contract with Jellyfish, he would still have to pay 5.3 billion won in compensation, citing the proviso to fulfill his legal obligations.
The two sides submitted a reason for the appeal, but the Supreme Court dismissed them all, judging that none include the reasons mentioned in Article 4 (1) of the Special Act on the Appeal Procedure.
Since he won the civil trial against his former agency and the probation period has elapsed, attention is now focused on whether Kang Ji-hwan will resume his acting career.
Source: Wikitree
