A district court has ordered the government and Cheonghaejin Marine to compensate survivors of the 2014 ferry disaster and their families. The court ruled there is a significant causal relationship between the negligence of the Coast Guard and captain and crew of the ferry and the suffering of survivors.

The tragedy claimed a total of 304 lives, and 250 of them were students and teachers of Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province who were on a school trip to Jeju Island.

The Suwon District Court on Monday found partially in favor of the 76 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by survivors and their families against the government and the ferry company.

The court ordered the defendants to pay W80 million to each survivor, between W4 million and W16 million each to the parents, grandparents and siblings of the student survivors, and between W2 million and W32 million to the spouses, children, parents and siblings of the other survivors (US$1=W1,123).

The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit because they rejected a compensation package from 2015 that was offered by the Park Geun-hye administration, which has been widely blamed for botching the rescue operation and authorizing the unsafe ferry to run in the first place.

In an earlier lawsuit last July filed by the families of victims, the court also held the government and ferry company liable and ordered them to pay W200 million to each victim and W40 million to the parents.

