1. The defendant's appeal is dismissed.

2. The costs of appeal shall be borne by the Defendant.

Purport of claim and appeal

[Claim]

1. The gist of the Plaintiff’s assertion was that the Plaintiff purchased land from the Defendant around September 2017. However, the Plaintiff concluded a provisional contract that did not specify the amount and payment date of the total purchase price, intermediate payment, and remainder, the parcel number of the subject matter of sale, etc. (hereinafter “instant provisional contract”) and paid KRW 6 million to the Defendant.

However, the defendant only requested the plaintiff to pay additional expenses for development permission, etc. and did not comply with the plaintiff's request for the conclusion of the principal contract under the above provisional contract. On December 2017, the plaintiff requested the defendant to return the provisional contract after having declared his/her intention to cancel the provisional contract.

Therefore, the defendant has a duty to return KRW 6 million received from the plaintiff as a provisional contract deposit to its original state.

2. Determination: (a) the Plaintiff and the Defendant concluded a provisional contract; (b) accordingly, the Plaintiff paid KRW 6 million to the Defendant; and (c) the fact that the principal contract was not concluded under the provisional contract between the Plaintiff and the Defendant; and (d) the Defendant did not have any dispute between the parties; and (b) the Defendant did not perform the obligation to conclude the principal contract at the time of the instant provisional contract due to the reasons such as delay of various permits, etc., it is reasonable to deem that the provisional contract was lawfully rescinded by the Plaintiff’s declaration of intent of rescission on the ground of the Defendant’s nonperformance of obligation.

Therefore, barring special circumstances, the Defendant is obligated to return to the Plaintiff the amount of KRW 6 million as the provisional contract is to be returned to the original state due to the rescission of the provisional contract of this case.

The Defendant submitted a preparatory document dated May 11, 2020, accompanied by the photographs of the Plaintiff working in C on May 8, 2020, and an abstract of the Plaintiff’s resident registration record card, including the Plaintiff’s transfer on October 10, 2018 to D, but this is considerable after the execution of the instant provisional contract.