The 19 victims of the forced vasectomies and abortions described in Story 1 filed a claim for damages against the state, decades after these procedures were performed. On October 22, 2014, the Second Civil Division of the Gwangju High Court dismissed the appeals of both the plaintiffs and the defendant, upholding the lower court's damages ruling as it stood. The lower court had earlier ruled that the state must pay 30 million won each to the nine plaintiffs who underwent forced vasectomies, and 40 million won each to the ten plaintiffs who underwent forced abortions.
The case continued to the Supreme Court. In judgment 2014Da230535, delivered on February 15, 2017, the Court rejected the state's appeal and upheld state liability. It held that vasectomies and abortions performed without legal authority and genuine consent constituted unlawful exercises of public power. The plaintiffs thus secured a final judicial ruling on state responsibility decades after the procedures.