The Defendant’s grounds of appeal are as follows: (a) the representative director of H Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “H”) voluntarily paid KRW 10,000,000 to the Defendant, who was the party involved in the instant apartment construction contract for remodeling to take the floor of the occupants’ representative meeting; and (b) the Defendant did not receive the said money in return for an illegal solicitation from H; (c) however, the lower court found the Defendant guilty of the violation of trust, which is the ancillary charge, by rendering a judgment on erroneous facts and legal principles.

However, the admission and evaluation of evidence conducted on the premise of the fact finding and the admission and evaluation of evidence belongs to the exclusive authority of the fact-finding court unless it goes beyond the limit of free evaluation of evidence.

The judgment below

Even if examining the reasoning in light of the record, it is not recognized that the judgment of the court below exceeded the above limit by violating logical and empirical rules.

In addition, the lower court’s judgment did not err by misapprehending the legal doctrine on illegal solicitation in the crime of taking property in breach of trust.

Therefore, the appeal is dismissed. It is so decided as per Disposition by the assent of all participating Justices on the bench.