By Lee Kyung-min
A court has granted a divorce to a man who was responsible for the breakup of his marriage by cheating on his wife, overturning the lower court’s ruling.
It is the first court decision that allowed a divorce sought by a cheating spouse after the Supreme Court’s ruling in September that expanded the grounds for divorce in limited cases, although it largely upheld the legal principle that bans a party responsible for destroying the marriage from filing for divorce.
Following the ruling, similar divorce requests are expected from estranged couples who have been barely maintaining a paper-only marriage relationship.
The suit was filed in 2013 by a man, whose identity is withheld, who had been separated from his wife for more than 25 years after having two extramarital relationships.
The couple had fought often since they married in 1970, with the man throwing the television set during an argument with his wife in front of their children.
The couple agreed to end their marriage in 1980 and reunited three years later, but the husband started living with another woman. Then he had an extramarital affair with another woman, with whom he had a child out of wedlock in 1990.
The man filed for a divorce for the second time, but the court denied his request saying he was responsible for destroying his marriage. Since then, the couple had cut off all communications from each other, and had met only once at their son’s marriage.
The man filed for divorce for a third time in 2013, but the Seoul Family Court rejected his request, saying he destroyed the marriage by cheating and having a son outside marriage.
However, the appellate court within the same family court has granted the divorce, saying the couple had kept a meaningless marriage over the past 25 years and that the wife had enough money to support herself.
“Their marriage had ended long time ago. Forcing the man to carry out his duty as a legal spouse causes unbearable distress on the petitioner,” the court said.
“Also, their divorce will not subject the wife to dire financial straits because she has enough financial assets.”
The court also took into account that the man had given his family hundreds of millions of won in financial support.
So far, courts have implemented the “fault divorce” rule to protect the wife and children from being subject to financial straits.
At the time, however, the top court ruled that divorces should be allowed in limited cases if assigning blame for destroying the marriage is meaningless due to time, or the responsible party has made enough effort to cancel out the blame by providing financial support to the wife and children.
Until 1987, when a cheating spouse sought divorce, courts have granted a divorce only to those who have mutually agreed to a divorce. This was to protect wives who would be unable to support themselves after a divorce.