By Nam Hyun-woo
A district court said Tuesday that a unilateral registration of a marriage after 10 years of marital life was lawful.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of a professor at a private university innocent after she had been indicted for registering her marriage to her comatose partner on her own. The husband is the chairman of the board at the university.
A decade ago, the couple married in Japan, but failed to register it in Korea. After the husband, in his late 70s, suddenly collapsed from a cerebral infarction and fell into a coma, the wife in her 30s registered their marriage at a district office.
In Korea, marriage registration is valid only when two witnesses and the couple sign the registration form.
The court said in its ruling that “The husband lacked the mental capacity to sign the registration form. However, the two have been living together as a married couple and the husband seems to have had no intent to dissolve their union.”
The ruling came after the Supreme Court ruled against the husband’s family members who had filed a lawsuit to nullify the marriage.