Advisory Success Case on Settlement Payments for a Deceased Transport Driver and Outsourced Vehicle Charges

The client is a logistics company that operates a consigned parcel delivery business. After a contracted delivery driver died while working, the company faced issues regarding the payment of settlement money and a charter-fee (substitute-vehicle fee) claim from an outsourcing partner. The bereaved family demanded payment of the settlement money in the deceased driver's name, while at the same time the outsourcing company directly claimed from the client the charter fee under the charter agreement it had concluded with that driver. However, the client had no direct contractual relationship with the outsourcing company, and the settlement payment process also involved procedural complexities such as verifying heirs and issuing tax invoices.

This case involved three main issues.

First, whether there was an obligation to pay the outsourcing company's charter fee was at issue. After closely analyzing the contractual structure, our firm confirmed that the parties to the charter agreement were only the deceased driver as an individual and the outsourcing company, and that the client had no direct contractual relationship. Accordingly, the firm made clear that the client bore no legal obligation to pay the outsourcing company.

Second, the matter of inheritance handling of the deceased driver's settlement money was raised. Reviewing inheritance law and relevant precedents, the firm advised that, based on the principle that settlement claims pass to co-heirs in proportion to their statutory shares of inheritance, the client should verify all heirs and pay each according to their respective share.

Third, as a response plan for cases where the family's cooperation is difficult, the firm proposed a "repayment deposit (deposit in lieu of performance)" procedure through which the client could be discharged from the obligation if heirs could not be identified or refused to accept payment. This secured a practical solution allowing the client to conclude the settlement process without legal risk.

Your Legal Team clarified the absence of the client's liability for the charter-fee debt in this case, preventing an unnecessary cost burden, and supported the client in concluding the dispute while maintaining legal stability by applying inheritance-law procedures and the deposit system in parallel during the payment of the deceased worker's settlement money.

This case is regarded as a representative success story in which settlement and bereaved-family negotiation problems involving deceased drivers, which frequently arise in the logistics and transport sector, were addressed through an integrated review of contractual-structure analysis and inheritance and deposit procedures.