The costs of appeal are assessed against the Defendants.

1. The lower court’s judgment against the conjunctive Defendants is in the form of a lawsuit in which all co-litigants settle the dispute between each other in relation to the same legal relationship in a lump sum without contradiction (Article 70(2) of the Civil Procedure Act), and it is not allowed to render a judgment or make an additional judgment on the remaining parties only for some co-litigants (Article 70(2)).

In addition, if one of the main co-litigants or the conjunctive co-litigants files an appeal in a subjective preliminary co-litigation, the final and conclusive part of the claim against other co-litigants shall also be prevented, and they shall be subject to adjudication in the appellate court (see Supreme Court Decision 2009Da104960, 104977, Mar. 27, 2014). The Civil Procedure Act requires that Articles 67 through 69, which are the provisions on indispensable co-litigation, apply mutatis mutandis to a subjective preliminary co-litigation, and in the case of withdrawal of a lawsuit, exceptions are recognized.

(Article 70(1) proviso). Therefore, part of the co-litigants may withdraw the lawsuit, or withdraw the lawsuit against a part of the co-litigants. In such cases, the part of the claim against the remaining co-litigants who did not withdraw the lawsuit is still subject to adjudication.

In this case, the court of first instance did not render a judgment against the conjunctive Defendants, citing the Plaintiff’s claim against the primary Defendant B.

However, since the primary defendant B appealed, the part of the claim against the defendants is also transferred to the court below, which is the appellate court, to be judged by the appellate court.

Since then, even if a subjective preliminary co-litigation relationship was terminated by the plaintiff's withdrawal of a lawsuit against the primary defendant B in the court below, the part of the claim against the defendants still remains.