Author Lee Ji-seong loses second appeal in W1b lawsuit against neighbor over illegal renovation

Bestselling author Lee Ji-seong and his wife, billiards player Cha Yu-ram, have lost their second-round appeal in a 1 billion won ($672,000) lawsuit they filed against a neighbor over an illegal interior renovation at their Gangnam apartment.

The Seoul High Court's Civil Division 8-3, presided over by Judge Im Jong-hyo, ruled against Lee on July 8 in the second-round trial of his suit against downstairs neighbor A, in which Lee claimed A had "exploited his public profile as a weakness to extort him" and sought 1 billion won in damages. The ruling mirrored the first-instance decision and ordered Lee to bear the litigation costs.

The ruling lifted a provisional seizure that had been placed on A's home for roughly four years.

The dispute began around January 2022, when the couple purchased an apartment in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and carried out an unpermitted interior renovation. The work — which involved demolishing a staircase in the duplex unit and adding a new front door — was large enough to require district office approval, but the couple proceeded without obtaining it.

The construction caused severe noise that neighbors said was unbearable. Measurements taken in the unit directly below registered 92 dB, more than 100 times the permitted noise level at a standard construction site. Some units also suffered water leaks and structural cracks. The district office subsequently issued an enforcement order requiring Lee to restore the apartment to its original condition.

Lee did not comply immediately, restoring only part of the work. It was only after the district office filed a complaint against the contractor on charges of violating the Building Act that Lee went through the proper permitting process. He obtained approval in April 2022 and continued construction through September of that year. The conflict with his neighbors did not end there.

When neighbors demanded compensation for the damage, Lee filed a civil lawsuit and a criminal complaint against A. Lee's side argued that the neighbors had "exploited the fact that he and Cha Yu-ram are public figures as a weakness to extort them" and had "damaged their reputation by feeding false information to the media." Lee filed charges against A for attempted extortion and defamation, while simultaneously seeking 1 billion won in damages.

Lee has lost at both the first and second instance in the civil case.

A was cleared of liability for damages in both rounds and was also cleared of all charges stemming from Lee's criminal complaint. Lee, by contrast, received a summary order imposing a fine of 500,000 won.

The first-instance court ruled against Lee in September 2024, dismissing his 1 billion won claim against A. The court explicitly stated that the victims in the case were the neighbors and that Lee was the party responsible for the harm.

The court said Lee's side had "commenced construction unlawfully" and noted that noise measured in the unit below had reached 92 dB, while some residents suffered damage including broken window frames and shattered glass.

Lee argued that A and others had "threatened him by demanding large sums of money as compensation," but the court rejected that claim. It found "no evidence of threats or extortion" and said that, given the circumstances, A had every right to demand compensation from Lee for the damage caused by the construction.

The court also found it credible that A had proposed settling the matter for 10 million won, viewing the offer as a proposal to close the dispute by recovering only the actual restoration costs A had already paid out.

The court further noted that while A had at one point mentioned 180 million won as compensation for all units, this was merely an illustrative calculation — 200,000 won per unit per day over a 60-day construction period — and amounted to no more than an attempt to quantify the damages, not a demand for a specific sum.

As the dispute escalated, A proposed settling for 10 million won, but Lee refused. Lee's position was that compensating all units was "an excessive demand" and that he was willing to give 2 million won to the building representative as a kind of community development fund.

The first-instance court also found no credible evidence for Lee's claims that A had blocked his access to the parking lot or tipped off journalists. The court said Lee appeared to have used the parking lot without obstruction and that there was no evidence A had physically barred his entry or contacted the press.

Lee appealed, but the second-instance court reached the same conclusion roughly two years later. The appeals court found that "all of Lee's claims lacked merit and must be dismissed," affirming that "the first-instance ruling was correct."

The ruling has not yet been finalized. Lee's side still has time to file a further appeal to the Supreme Court.

In May last year, the Seoul Central District Court issued a summary order fining Lee 500,000 won on charges including property damage and obstruction of business, finding that he had defaced a notice on a residents' bulletin board and interfered with the operations of the apartment management office. Lee's side has contested the summary order and requested a formal trial, which is currently ongoing.

A was cleared of all charges across three separate criminal complaints Lee filed — covering obstruction of business, false accusation, attempted extortion, and defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization — with prosecutors issuing no-charge dispositions between July 2022 and April last year, a span of roughly three years. Lee challenged some of those decisions by filing a fiscal petition, but that too was dismissed in December last year.

A said winning the second round of the civil case had lifted the provisional seizure on her home after roughly four years. She added, however, that "it took far too long to reach a verdict, and the first-instance criminal trial over Lee's illegal renovation charges has still not concluded — I hope that result comes soon."