증권집단소송의 분배절차와 분배잔여금처리의 고찰 (A Review on Damage Distribution and a Solution to Undistributed Funds in Securities Class Action)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 숭실대학교 법학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 법학논총 / 20권 / 243 ~ 266페이지
· 저자명 : 최정식

초록

증권집단소송에서 각 구성원의 손해액을 개별적으로 산정하지 않고, 총구성원의 손해액을 합산하여 피고로부터 청구한 후, 법원은 분배관리인을 선임하여, 그로 하여금 마련된 배상금을 구성원에게 분배하게 한다. 그러므로 구성원은 지정기일 안에 분배관리인에게 분배를 신청해야 한다. 한편 가급적 근사분배원리(Cy pres distribution mechanism)는 배상금을 개별 구성원에게 분배하기 곤란하거나 불가능할 때에 피해구성원과 유사한 집단 등에게 분배를 하는 방식으로서 미국집단소송에서 사용된다. 이 방식으로는 분배참여구성원에게 기금을 모두 분배하는 방식, 물건이나 서비스의 값을 인하해주는 방식, 주나 정부에 분배잔여금을 귀속시키는 방식, 소비자신탁기금에 귀속시키는 방식 등이 있으며, 이들 방식은 피고의 불법행위를 차단하고 나아가 피고의 부당이득을 환수함으로써 정의 실현에 기여한다는 공통점이 있다. 그러므로 우리 법이 규정하고 있는 분배잔여금의 피고에게 반환하는 방식은 피고의 불법행위를 조장하고, 부당이득을 부추긴다는 점에서 부적절하므로, Cy pres doctrine에 의한 방식, 그 중 분배잔여금을 정부에 귀속시키는 방식으로 전환을 모색하여야 할 것이다.

영어초록

In class action, each class member's damage claim is not assessed separately. The court assesses damage by aggregating the claims of all class members. After collecting the lump sum, the court distributes the funds in various ways. By direct court authority or at the lead plaintiff's request, a distributor will be appointed, and the distributor is to distribute any damage award under the supervision of the court. A class member, within the designated period, should report his or her claim to the distributor. Any class member who is not able to report the claim to the distributor within the designated time period can not take part in distribution of claim damages.
Because class members may fail to submit a claim, or the class representative may be unable to identify and locate each possible claimant, settlement funds and damages often cannot be distributed to each injured member of a plaintiff class.
The cy pres doctrine permits the ‘next best’ use of settlement or damage funds that cannot feasibly be distributed to individual plaintiffs. The cy pres doctrine, borrowed from the law of trusts, allows the funds to be used for a similar purpose when it is impossible or impractical to distribute the funds in a traditional manner. There are four cy pres distribution mechanisms. The court can distribute the entire sum by dividing it among all the claimants, by reducing the price of the defendant's goods or services until the sum is “disgorged”(price reduction), by allowing the funds to escheat to the state(escheat), or by placing residual funds in the hands of trustees (the consumer trust fund). Each of the mechanisms contributes, in varying degrees, to the fundamental goals of disgorgement of unlawful profits, deterrence of future unlawful activity by the defendant, and compensation of class members. Nonetheless, some criticize cy pres distribution mechanisms in that they may result in windfall to third parties or to the class claimants. The alternative to cy pres distribution is to return undistributed funds to the defendant after all possible claims have been paid.
Korean Securities Class Actions Bill states that residual funds should be return to the defendant. I think that reversion of undistributed funds to the defendant is not appropriate in that this mechanism can not help the fundamental goals of disgorgement of unlawful profits, deterrence of future unlawful activity by the defendant, Therefore, I think that residual funds must be escheated to the government.

참고자료

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